Hugo J. David was the youngest of 5 children born December 27, 1910, on a farm in southwest Iowa. Hugo was the son of Albert and Minna (Borkowski) David. He had 3 brothers: Alfred, Emil, Clarence; and one sister, Edna Friedrichsen.

After completing an eighth grade education there, he was enrolled in Lutheran ministerial training at Concordia high school/college in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graduating in 1931, he moved to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis but this training was cut short after his vicarage due to the Depression and a scarcity of pastoral calls. He worked a variety of places in St. Louis and met his wife, Fyrmith W. Blaseck, at St. Stephens Lutheran Church while both were singing in the choir. In 1939 he earned a Masters Degree in speech from the University of Missouri in Columbia, and married Fyrmith. They celebrated their 60th anniversary together here last year.

The early 1940s saw him teach speech at the University of Illinois in Champaign until he was drafted into the Army in 1942. After serving in Germany and being discharged in 1945, he and Fyrmith moved to Denver, Colorado, where he took a position on the speech department faculty at the University of Denver. Several years later he moved to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, where he earned a doctorate in education, became a full professor and retired in 1966. During that time they had two sons, Alan and Neal, and later moved to St. Joseph, Michigan where he coordinated student teaching and advanced degree programs at that off campus site.

He was a faithful and active member of the church serving as church president both in St. Joseph and here in his retirement in Arizona. He volunteered for over 15 years at the Mesa Public library and a tree was recently planted in commemoration of this service. Fishing was one of his favorite past times as was reading, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and talking with people. He met many people in his life - very few were strangers to him after he had spent just a little time conversing with them.

He lived his life with principle and in faith never doing things half way or leaving them undone. He was a faithful and loving husband, a caring and supportive father to his sons, an excellent teacher and a man liked and loved by everyone who came to know him.

The family would like the gifts in memory of Hugo to be designated for the Mountain View Elementary School Building Fund.

Fyrmith (Blaseck) David died January 1, 2000 and Hugo J. David died May 15, 2000. Both Fyrmith and Hugo had their funerals at Mt. View Lutheran Church in Apache Junction, Arizona, with interment at Mt. View Memorial Gardens of Mesa, Arizona.