Dave Gillespie, Who Loved To Laugh And Lived His Life As An Adventure

Dave Gillespie loved to tell the story about how motorists would roll down their windows at stoplights and helpfully advise, "Hey, you left your coffee cup on the top!"

"Yeah, I know," he would reply, then roar off in his trusty red pickup, laughing his wonderful, infectious laugh. The cup stayed on top of the cab for days - until he finally unglued it.

Dave Gillespie loved to laugh and share his quirky humor with others.

It was part of his joy of life, his full-speed-ahead approach to what was a constant adventure.

He was known best for that, for his unfailing generosity and for his love for his family.

Mr. Gillespie of Richmond Beach died Saturday after his small plane crashed in bad weather on the northwest side of Three Fingers Mountain in Snohomish County. He had been returning from a trip to Coeur d'Alene. He was 42.

The accident cut short a life filled with activities that he loved to share with others and a career as a builder and property manager.

A native of Seattle, Mr. Gillespie grew up on Queen Anne Hill and in North Seattle.

He attended Seattle public schools, the University School in Victoria, B.C., and graduated from Ingraham High School. He also attended Shoreline Community College, participating in its marine biology program aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship.

After college he worked several years for his uncle, a home builder, learning every skill involved in building a house.

Later, he and his wife, Judy, had their own business, building and selling houses all over the Seattle area. In recent years, he managed Camelot Square, a large mobile-home park in Federal Way.

Drawing on his 10 years of building experience, Mr. Gillespie could repair or build just about anything - from fixing a washing machine to building a deck.

"Oh, I'll just dink around here until I figure it out," he would say if it was an unfamiliar project. And he usually did.

He used his skills to help scores of people: a single mother whose roof leaked, friends with broken-down cars, others with clogged plumbing.

Judy Gillespie remembers the night of the big Dec. 18, 1990, snowstorm when he was six hours late getting home. He had been helping stuck motorists with his four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Over the years, he and Judy took in many people temporarily needing a home, some for up to a year: a friend just back from Vietnam, a friend who was a recovering alcoholic, a troubled teenager.

"I could never think of all the people Dave helped," said Judy. "He never said no when it was someone in need . . . no matter who you were, an old friend or a new friend."

He also enjoyed life to the hilt. He was an expert salmon fisherman. He hiked and camped. He loved boats and motorcycles and owned a few over the years. For a while, he was into hang-gliding and scuba diving. And he loved a challenge.

His lifelong friend Tom Terry remembered when, just for the heck of it, they took his 22-foot cabin cruiser miles up a narrow, shallow Bellevue slough, then turned it around in a pond.

As a young man, when his car wouldn't go into forward gear, he once backed it four miles home to repair it.

When he married and had children, he looked for activities in which he could include his family. They went boating and water skied together. They fished.

They snow skied and he was member of both the Snoqualmie Pass and Crystal Mountain ski patrols.

When his oldest son, Patrick, suffered a spinal-cord injury in a skiing accident three years ago, he was devastated. But he went to work - helping organize fund-raisers to pay for special equipment, spending months building a special bedroom and making his home wheelchair accessible.

"One of the things he always said was, `God doesn't really interfere with your life, he just gives you the strength to deal with it,' " said his wife. "That was his attitude . . . and he always wanted life to be a celebration."

Besides Judy, he is survived by his sons Patrick, 18, Danny, 8, and Christopher, 6; a daughter, Eva, 11; his parents, Thomas R. and Marianne Gillespie of Seattle and Lihui, Hawaii; a sister, Valerie, of Seattle; and a brother, Thomas J. Gillespie, of Ketchum, Idaho.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Luke Church, 322 N. 175th St. Call 546-2451 for directions. A luncheon will be held in the parish hall after the service.

Memorial donations may be made to the Snoqualmie Pass Ski Patrol, 16422 N.E. Fourth St., Bellevue, WA 98008, or the Crystal Mountain Ski Patrol, 22516 S.E. 304th Place, Kent, WA 98042