David Chester Meyers

An outstanding athlete, David played basketball and was a member of the track team that won the U.P. Class D/E Championship in 1944. Growing up during the Great Depression and early years of World War II, David’s responsibilities on the farm involved milking five cows twice a day and cleaning the barn as well as having responsibilities related to the farm’s potato crop. Hunting and trapping were favorite hobbies as well as important sources of food and income for the family. He cleverly pieced together his own automobile with the Tappinen brothers from a 1929 Ford chassis, a 1930 Ford engine, and tires from a wrecked vehicle as they were tough to come by during WW II.

Upon graduating from high school, he took the train to Chicago for induction into the U.S. Navy and boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Station. Six weeks later he would report to Little Creek, Virginia for amphibious training. While there he was trained to box by future world middle-weight champion Tony Zale. David would also be recognized as a top sailor of the week out of fifteen hundred men on base. He would be deployed to the south Pacific on LSM 250 (aka Thorn). On Veterans Day 2023, David spoke to a large celebration in Port Richey as the only WW II veteran present where he would recount being on Tinian in 1945 when word came that the war was over as preparation had been underway there for an invasion of Japan. His continued service would bring him to China where LSM 250 would deliver supplies to KMT forces on the Hai Ho River.

Subsequent to his military service, David would drill wells in Houghton County with his father and worked a winter on a skidding tractor at a lumber camp in the Huron Mountains before going on to work six years in the moving industry for John F. Ivory out of Detroit. He would be married a short time during these years to Patricia Verrier. David’s memoir captures many epic moving stories in the pre-interstate highway days across the forty-eight adjacent states and Mexico, particularly with his favorite teammate Lezore Cote.

Back in Chassell to drill wells in 1952 and at the Strawberry Festival dance, David would meet Beatrice Nurmi who had recently completed her teaching degree at Michigan State University. They would marry a year later. David then started his post-secondary education at Suomi College and Michigan Tech before going on to complete a degree in Transportation from Michigan State University in 1957. He would work for Consolidated Freightways in Indianapolis, Billings, and Chicago before going to work for a fledgling company called Vulcan Materials which was buying up family-owned crushed aggregate companies throughout the eastern part of the United States to support the construction of the interstate highway system. He would become the Safety Director of Vulcan’s Midwest Division covering Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. David was well known in the safety field through his writing and involvement with the National Safety Council. He was a long-time Boy Scout volunteer and umpired little league baseball.

Retiring in 1988, David split time between Chassell and Holiday, Florida. He and Beatrice traveled extensively all over the country and world. David had lived exclusively in Florida since shortly after Beatrice’s death in 2013 and had a great late in life partner over the last ten years with Sally Scanlon of Watertown, NY.

David was preceded in death by his wife Beatrice, parents, sisters Janet and Dorothy (Heikkinen), brother Fred, and grandson Braden McIntyre.

David is survived by his partner Sally Scanlon, daughter Janine (Ron) Sisk of Lenexa, Kansas, son Keith (Julie) Meyers of Chassell, daughter Kirsten Olson of Lansing, daughter Kimberly (Arn) McIntyre of Rockford and grandchildren Rebecca (Cameron) Chase, Dr. Amy (Dr. Jake Burch) Meyers, Erin (Mark) Neal, Aaron Olson, Kayla Olson, Raija (Kyle Butler) McIntyre, Keaton McIntyre, Stacy Smith, Shelby Sisk, and two great-grandsons, Elijah and Caleb Chase, and a great-granddaughter Evelyn Smith.

We will all miss David’s positive attitude, kind personality, and sense of humor.

A military funeral with a celebration of life will be announced in the future. Memorial contributions may be made to the Florida Naval Sailors Association (of New Port Richey, Florida), the Macular Degeneration Foundation, or the Chassell Historical Organization.