Born at home in Emma, NC his family and kin worked the grandparents dairy farm to feed themselves. The farm was lost during the Great Depression and his father Clyde worked a variety of jobs to support his wife Daisy and their 2 children Doris and David. Eventually his father began driving semi-trucks.
David worked as soon as someone would hire him – paper boy, window washer, box boy and school bus driver. David learned to drive a semi from riding with his father and eventually drove coast-to-coast via back roads to avoid the scales as he was always overloaded in order to make more money.
On his 18th birthday he registered for the draft in Petaluma, CA where he was delivering a load. He joined the Marines and trained at Camp La June, NC where he drove extra heavy equipment for a tank battalion. He also raced a Mercury that was souped up by the base repair shop…He did ship out to Haiti, but the Korean war was ending so he rejoined the civilian world.
He drove semis for a while, then worked in a brokerage office and eventually bought his own brokerage. He loaded produce which is high risk due to its limited life. He had offices in FL, AZ and CA.
He lived in CA with his first wife and adopted her children Cheryl and Craig and she had one more child, David.
He did go broke and drove again to become solvent and started back up in the business.
He connected with his son Gary when he turned 18 and put him through college and eventually, they worked together.
David started buying commercial real estate in the Inland Empire of CA along with running a brokerage business. In 1989 he designed and built his custom home in CA.
For recreation he joined a Jeep club and fixed up a tricked out Jeep that would crawl over rocks and handle most any type of terrain…as long as it had an expert driver.
David was a widower and re-married in 2007. He and Mary K. traveled all over the US in an RV towing the Jeep/SeaDos/or a pickup truck at different times depending on the type of outing.
David was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007; in 2017 he was radiated for tonsil cancer and was on a feeding tube due to his throat being damaged from the treatment.
He lived a very full and event filled life…and drove himself out of poverty!
Survived by his wife Mary K., son Craig and his wife Lori, grandchildren Michelle, Irene, Christine, Amber, Ashley, Nicole, Sina, Zachary and great grandchildren. Nieces LaRene and Eloise.
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