Obituary
Dave was born on a bitterly cold day, January 5, 1931. He was one of a set of premature twins, of an immigrant family living in a granary. His sister Marge was awake and crying but he was silent, and they thought he was stillborn. So, they put him in a shoebox outside to await burial and focused on the living baby. The cold startled him into breathing and when they heard his cries, they brought him inside and placed him in the oven to warm up. He enjoyed that story and would often add, “I’m half baked!”
He spent his early years in Hussar, Alberta, on a rented farm, going to school and working the land with his Dad and siblings Tina, Jack, Sarah, Marie, Dyrk, Marge, Jessie and Anne. That’s where he got his first exposure to repairing equipment. When he was 16, his family moved to the Aldergrove area and began to clear land to plant strawberries. Grandpa wasn’t well and so Dave and his older brother Dyrk did much of the work, removing old growth stumps and brush, and then starting the planting and tending. They were joining a large Mennonite community with an established church and social life. That included a cute, blue eyed strawberry farmer’s daughter he saw in choir and youth group. He took her roller-skating, and to White Rock for picnics with the gang.
Dave saw the need for equipment for land clearing rather than the hand digging and dynamite he and Dyrk had used, and bought a DC 9 Caterpillar tractor with a friend, operating it in the area. He then went to Calgary to attend Berean Bible College for a year, leaving his fiancé behind. His mother worried he wouldn’t come home for the wedding. But he did, and married his recent nursing grad sweetheart, Molly, in 1956. They moved to Calgary so Dave could work for his brother in law, Bun Shatto, as a heavy duty mechanic. Without any formal training, he challenged and passed the SAIT heavy duty mechanic’s exam.
After many years working for Shatto Construction, moving with the road construction crew every summer, and setting up the trailer for his growing family of Doug, Karen and Todd in various small towns across Saskatchewan and Alberta, the company closed. Dave then purchased his own backhoe and started off as a private operator. Most of his career was contracting to the City of Calgary.
At 50, he took golf lessons with Les Lonneburg, and soon 18 holes were a regular feature of his week. When he retired it became 54 holes, and Ed Bunn was a regular partner. Molly and Dave traveled, often when Don Comfort would find a great last-minute deal. The Driedigers, Comforts and Franciscos went to Hawaii, multiple times to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Portugal, and various US destinations, not to mention a choir tour of Europe with Vic and Vi Harbidge. Later, they trailered around Alberta, focusing on destinations with golf courses.
He enjoyed his family, including grand and great grandchildren, hockey/football/golf on TV, and multiple courses of dessert. He built a garage, reroofed the house, learned to bake a chocolate cake, made fine furniture, repaired his kid’s cars. He played a winning game of President/Turkey and a reluctant but just as winning game of Scrabble.
On December 1, he had a stroke that he never recovered from. He died on the coldest night of the year, December 21, 2022.
An Internment Service will be held January 5, 2023. More details will follow, please check back.
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We offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Dave January 5 1931

December 21 2022  and hope that their memory may be a source of comfort during this difficult time. Your thoughts and kind words are greatly appreciated. 

Sunset Funeral Service

Death notice for the town of: Linden, Province: Alberta

death notice Dave January 5 1931

December 21 2022

mortuary notice Dave January 5 1931

December 21 2022