Posted by Charles Funderburke on July 7, 2001:

Dave and I first met in 1964 when our two respective high schools combined bus resources for a Key Club trip from Cheyenne to Denver. Somehow our conversation got around to a shared interest in West Point or - dare I speak its name - the Air Force Academy, since we both had grown up in the Air Force and wanted to fly more than anything else. As we talked, I began to realize I had missed a great friendship during my high school years. Further discussion revealed just how sharp Dave was; it finally dawned on me exactly what would happen if we ever had to compete with one another for a congressional appointment. As fortune would have it, that concern was finessed into a shared commiseration in suffering through four long years before we would ever reach our goal. Dave's rise close to the top of our Class confirmed my earlier impression. We kept up with one another's progress over the next few years and fed and cared for the same dream that all the hassle was worth it. We lost touch after graduation but not before I learned that Dave had been successful in getting into Flight School. It is a privilege and an honor to be able to say Dave's fine intelligence, quiet manner and even-handed approach to life would easily have made him one of the finest pilots and officers the Air Force ever saw.

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