Tribute to Dave...

About a month ago I received an e-mail asking me to share any memories or stories of Dave Scheidecker on his memorial Facebook group. I struggled with the project for a number of reasons, but finally put together something I was happy with. I'm posting a copy of my tribute below.


I have been reading the posts in this group for some time and want to thank everyone for their thoughts and memories of Dave. I never posted, because I didn’t think that I could muster the words to describe what Dave meant to me. How he influenced my life, and how much I miss him every day. How whatever tribute I might be able to create would fall short of what he would deserve. How is it possible to take the experiences of the time I knew Dave and condense them into several paragraphs? How do you take measure of such a great man? It’s not something that you describe; it’s something that you feel.

To say that I was never his student would only be true in the academic sense. I’m sure that everyone who knew him outside of his career in teaching would feel the same way. He had many ways of sharing his wisdom. The things he taught me were simple lessons of life. He did it through his stories. His casual telling of his experiences in a way that made you connect them to your life and your experiences. He was a teacher of life.

Here are a couple of memories I’d like to share.

Dave the fisherman

Several years ago Dave and I went on a trip to Canada to do some fishing. We drove from Chicago to Northwest Ontario and then took a small plane to a remote cabin. There were six of us on the trip, and we paired up in two’s to go fishing every day. Most days Dave and I spent 8 to 10 hours a day together fishing. It was a great opportunity to share stories and enjoy each others company.

The lake where our cabin was situated had several surrounding lakes that you could portage to from our lake. The trails taking you from lake to lake were anything but well traveled. The only thing that made them trails was the occasional marker tied to a tree to indicate you were headed in the right direction. Based on the change in elevation, and the map indicating that our portage would be a quarter mile or so, we decided to travel as light as possible. We were both wearing rain suits, and we needed at the minimum our rods and tackle. We packed the tackle into a backpack that Damian loaned us for the trip, and packed the pockets of our rain suits with everything they would hold. I put on the back pack and grabbed the rods and we headed into the wilderness.

The rigor of the portage took its toll on Dave, and I carried everything on the way out. By the time we got back to the cabin that evening Dave was very tired and sore. As we were sitting around talking after everyone else went to bed, Dave said something to me that I’ll never forget. He said, this is probably the last time I’ll be able to do a fly-in trip to Canada. Of course I disagreed with him, and told him that I’m sure that in a couple of years we would do it again. He said perhaps, and let the conversation go in other directions, but I can’t help looking back to see he was right. He didn’t get the chance to do it again. I’m glad that I was able to spend his last trip to Canada with him.

Dave was an excellent fisherman, and being the teacher he was, taught me a number of techniques that made me a better fisherman. Like so many of the experiences that I shared with Dave, I came away much richer from having been with him.

Dave the builder

Dave and I shared a love of building things. It seemed that he always had some kind of construction or wood working project going on. When I would visit, I would usually find him working on some sort of project, or being shown a project that he had completed since my last visit. Some of the projects were of a grand scale, and others simple, but he always seemed to take joy in the process of creating something with his hands.

When the time came for me to work on a big construction project, Dave was there to lend a hand. I had a rather large deck to build, and Dave made the trip to St. Louis on several weekends to help get the main structure built. Working with Dave was always a pleasure because he brought such a range of construction experience to the project. Equally important, he always brought his sense of humor with him. As my project progressed he created the mantra “good enough for Dan” which was used whenever something wasn’t quite perfect. We continued saying that as a joke whenever we saw each other and something didn’t quite work out for me as expected.

There are so many stories to tell and so many wonderful memories that I have of my time with Dave. I admired him as a man, and held him dear to my heart as a friend. I wish I had the skills to write something that really conveyed who he was, but if you’re reading this you probably already know. He probably touched you in some way that left you with the same indelible marks he left on me. I’ll never forget him. I think If God would only have granted Dave one more day for each of us who loved him he would have lived forever.

I miss my friend.

To Dave’s family:

Kelly… thank you for bringing your father into my life. Kathy and Damian thank you for sharing him with me. My life will never be quite the same without him.

- ND