David Charles Gardner's Obituary
David Charles Gardner passed peacefully at his home on the morning of July 20, 2012 surrounded by family, after a 22 month long battle with brain cancer. He was 62.
David was born on October 22, 1949 in Buffalo New York to Charles and Mary Gardner. He moved to Baltimore at the age of 14.
David graduated City College high school of Baltimore in 1967. In 1972 David graduated in the 4th graduating class from UMBC.
David is survived by his wife Sue Birch; daughter and son in law Kristen and Matt Ryan; his grandchildren Abby and Luke Ryan; son Daniel Gardner; mother Mary Gardner; sister and brother in law Melissa and Chuck Wood and his stepchildren Eric; Evan and Grant Frady. David was preceded in death by his father Charles Gardner.
For those wishing to contribute to Dr. Quinones' brain cancer research donation checks should be made payable to Johns Hopkins University list in the memo line or enclose a note to indicate that the donation is in memory of David Gardner and to support the research of Dr. Quinones. Checks should be mailed to:
Emily Ehehalt Greene
Johns Hopkins Neurosurgery
100 N. Charles St. Ste 431
Baltimore MD 21201
A Remembrance Tribute will be held on Saturday, July 28, 2012 between 1 - 3 PM at Lasting Tributes Cremation & Funeral Care, P.A.
David Charles Gardner was born October 22nd, 1949 in Buffalo, NY, and aside from a brief time when his parents moved to Dusseldorf, Germany, he was raised in upstate NY. As a kid he loved his dog Mugsy. As a teenager he enjoyed many summers going canoeing at a camp in Ontario, Canada. He later told his daughter & son, Kristen & Daniel, that it was a very happy and formative experience.
When David was 15, his little sister Melissa was born and the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Not knowing any better, Melissa worshipped her big brother and thought everything he did was breathtaking. He relished the memory of when she was 11, she paid him to let her wash his cool new Corvette. He was a protective, caring brother when he wasn’t harassing her. She also got him in trouble a lot, like a pain-in-the-ass little sister should.
Thankfully, he was never called up for Vietnam; when he went for the draft board exam, he tried to avoid being drafted by eating a 5lb bag of Domino sugar, so that his urine would test high for sugar. However, the exam determined he was too barrel-chested and he was rejected. This may have inadvertently led to his life-long love of sugar—Snickers, peanut clusters, Symphony bars.
His first job was at a Crown Gas Station, then he went to the Highfield House as a switchboard operator. Around that time, he met the sweet young nurse-to-be, Mary Lepley (April 1968). On his switchboard night shifts, he’d call her during her nursing night shifts—and chat her up. They married December 23, 1970.
At the same time, he was attending UMBC, working on his Bachelor’s degree. There he began his long friendship with Emmerson—whom he knew by another name back then. Over these many years they have remained friends, and even if they hadn’t seen one another for 6 months, once they were together, they picked up like it was only yesterday when they last spoke.
Dave graduated from UMBC in 1973 with a degree in Economics. He left his night-shift job at the Federal Reserve and thereafter worked in the auto business or auto-related businesses for the rest of his life. His expertise was in Finance & Insurance and he was very successful. He started at Dealer Services and became good friends with the owner Jack Walsh. But he saw that the grass was greener selling Finance and Insurance to car buyers and moved over to Suburban Chevrolet as the finance manager.
During his marriage to Mary, he was never in one or two bowling leagues, he was always in three or four. He was a semi-professional duckpin bowler, with many trophies to show for it, but eventually his knees forced him to give it up. Around that time he drove in car rallies, played some basketball at UMBC (until his knees forbid it), and played racquetball. He was a very competitive player and he wanted to win.
However, in life & sports, one of Dave’s super special talents was golf. It was the most amazing thing, the way Dave drove a golf ball. It would explode from the tee but then about a third of the way down the fairway it was as if the after-burners were ignited and the ball seemed to be turbo charged. People were in awe!
Another special talent was Dave’s ability as a punster. People were in pain! But the puns didn’t let up, even though we groaned until the neighbors could hear us.
On July 18, 1976, David and Mary (and their two cats Keke & Sooner) had the great pleasure of welcoming Kristen Annmarie into the world. Dave helped with the delivery, and he said she came out as fast as a greased watermelon.
All during this time, Dave focused on growing his business servicing an increasing number of car dealerships on behalf of insurance underwriters. From Suburban Chevrolet followed Dover Datsun, Miller Brothers and All-Star Dodge. But for Dave’s friends, it was a tough time understanding what he did, exactly—Finance and Insurance, to be sure, but third party warranties for the car business?
David and Mary separated in 1976, and Dave moved to the Eastern Shore. In the summer of ‘81 he fell for a sexy horseback rider, Susan Maxwell. They married on November 28 1981, and eventually moved to Crofton, where they kept two dogs, Eskie and Mutley. Exactly seven years later, Daniel Emmerson was born on November 28, 1988. And just like with Kristen’s birth, when Dave’s friends had to endure his constant, repeated stories about Kristen, Kristen, Kristen, now it expanded to Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. They were both very important to him.
At the same time, Dave was frustrated with his career and wanted to be MORE successful. He had signed General Warranty in California to become a key component of his dealings-- so he launched PMSI, his own business, in 1986. PMSI’s major accounts included Shockley, Dixon, Rosenthal, the Griffith Group—and Dave was good at maintaining relationships even with difficult clients. Still, few of his friends and family could explain to anyone what the heck Dave did.
A little before this, in 1981, Dave made the acquaintance of Joe Spain, whom he challenged to a racquetball match. Joe promptly destroyed Dave in 5 games. Later, over pitchers of beer, Dave couldn't understand how a “fat sonofabitch like you beat my ass.” That's when Joe knew they’d be great friends. In Sept 1988, after 800 beers together between 11am and 1am at Kangaroo Katie’s, Dave proposed to Joe--to become his business partner in PMSI. Joe accepted, but once he came aboard, he realized Dave had earned lots of commission (that he’d already spent)—but had yet to be paid because Dave was a two-finger typist and a world-class procrastinator with the paperwork. Fortunately, Joe typed with ten fingers that saved Dave’s ass and together, they really began to do well. At one time, PMSI employed 17 people.
In September 1990, PMSI’s important California underwriter suddenly closed its doors. Over the course of the next 90 days, Joe and Dave were together or on the phone at all hours —Dave normally talked 6000 or 9000 minutes a month anyway—and they saved PMSI. They celebrated with a legendary, extravagant lunch of high priced Italian wine and food. Some people will tell you it was a $500 lunch, but don’t believe everything people tell you. Finally in 1993, Dave was wooed into the position of National Sales Manager with Travelers—and Dave and Joe no longer worked together. But Joe and Dave’s hangouts together never stopped. However, Dave and Susan had split in 1991.
At this stage of his career, Dave’s taste in cars matured significantly. His college car was a Cortina, which was totaled when a runaway UPS tractor-trailer smashed over it while he and Mary were inside. Subsequent cars were a purple Challenger (the “people eater”), a sexy brown corvette, a red Datsun 240Z, and a black Datsun 240ZX. Dave purchased his first Mercedes Benz in 1987—complete with radar-detector and dashboard-mounted gigantic cel phone—an improvement over the prehistoric model, in its 12lb carrying case. Dave’s yen for electronics was constant; whether it was the huge Magnaplanar speakers, or the gigantic flat screen TV with sound system, Dave had to have it. Of course he had to have a vanity plate, DGSBENZ. And whether it was the home stereo or amped-up car stereo, he blasted Queen, anything with Stevie Nicks, Bon Jovi--he even went through a Barbra Streisand phase. He chose a Fleetwood Mac song for his father-daughter dance at Kristen’s wedding.
On the links, Joe and Dave were golf buddies, playing courses all over the US. Anyone could see how much Dave liked to win and how much he hated to lose. Joe watched as golf clubs were launched into tree branches, into the water, and once, Dave shot a club 110 yards, and stuck it in the green.
In August 1996, David married Marjorie O’Connoll, and realized his fantasy—he got to live on a golf course! Marjorie brought Dave a certain access to the hoi-polloi of DC. He loved that he attended a cocktail party at a Supreme court Justice’s home. But, ultimately, Dave and Marjorie separated.
Dave was now spending summers playing golf with Daniel and coaching his baseball team. He took Dan to St. Louis for the Final Four in 2005. Once Daniel started college, he bought his Dad tickets for the South Carolina football every year and they tailgated and went to games from 2007 to 2011.
Sometime after Dave and Marjorie had separated in early 2004, Dave began to see a beautiful friend with eyes as deep brown as his, Sue Birch. She enjoys punning too. This match was no flash-in-the-pan. They like to tell the story of how they once spent three full days carrying on cheese-themed puns (much to the dismay of their kids).
In the early summer of 2010 Sue and Dave moved in together. They took in two cats, Lily and Monkey. He often visited Kristen and his grandchildren, Luke and Abby, whom he doted on. He used to say, when he was stressed or unhappy, frustrated or sad, he would go and see “the kidlets” and get centered again.
Sadly, in September 2010, Dave was diagnosed with brain cancer; after the first surgery, the doctor determined it to be very aggressive and no one knew if David had more than a month left. Even so, Dave and Sue were married July 25, 2011. Sue devotedly took care of him until he died at home, with family, on July 20, 2012.
--by Melissa Gardner, his loving sister
What’s your fondest memory of David?
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