David S. Whitmer

On April 16, 1954, David S. Whitmer entered this world kicking and screaming. While he didn’t spend the next six decades exactly kicking and screaming, he did make sure he remained hard to miss. He grew up on his family’s farm in Navarre, where he learned animal care. Cultivated a lifelong love of heavy machinery and perfected the art of irritating his sisters. Upon graduating from Fairless High School in 1972, he was picked up by a strong wind and spent the next forty years floating around Stark County (with brief stints in Texas and Colorado) taking on new opportunities as they caught his fancy. Whenever he went, he could always be found under a Stetson, and never surrounded by strangers, just friends he hadn’t introduced himself to. He was also never too far from a quick escape to an auction house and had an innate sense for finding great food. In 2016, he settled briefly at Brewster Parke where he enjoyed teasing staff, playing bingo, taking day trips to Dickson Cattle Company and doting on his grandchildren before wanderlust set back in. On October 4, 2019 he caught another breeze, this time with the express purpose of reuniting with his father Stanley and son Andrew. He is survived by his mother Betty (Ewing) Whitmer, sisters Barbara (Bob) McAfee, Kathy (Tony) Frustaci, daughter Rebecca (David Watson) Lyons, grandchildren Abigail, Jack, Edith, nephews Mark McGuinness, Patrick (Dani) McGuinness, Dr. Joseph (Dr. Kelly Kippes) Frustaci, Anthony Frustaci, Matthew Frustaci, and great-nieces Nikalina, Alice, and Eva. His family will father for a private celebration of life, and request that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Mercy Medical Center Development Foundation.