Dave joined his heavenly family on the 30th day of August 2024 after a prolonged battle with leukemia.
He was born to Lucille & Richard Dillon on January 9th, 1955 at St. John’s Hospital and graduated from Edison High School with the class of ’73. He attended Westminster College in Fulton, Mo and affiliated with Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He also attended OSU and the University of Houston before graduating with a BS from Tulsa University. While at TU he was elected Co-Chairman of Business Week and served as Vice President of Delta Sigma Pi.
Dave worked as an oil & gas accountant for Skelly / Getty Oil both in Houston and Tulsa. He also worked for Williams Exploration before accepting a position with CCH Computax as a tax analyst with an emphasis in depletion in Los Angeles. He liked to tell how he could go swimming in the Pacific Ocean in the morning and later be snow skiing in the afternoon at Big Bear. Life was good during the Eighties – living, working, and playing in Southern California.
Soon Dave was offered and accepted a position with Corptax in Agoura Hills – relocating to Malibu (the first year it officially became a city). He joked about George C. Scott (aka Patton) asking him to “step aside young man” at the grocery store so he could pick up a container of cottage cheese. He also liked to tell stories about all the celebrities he came in contact with while living in Malibu. Price Waterhouse in Chicago became aware of Dave’s talents as a tax analyst and offered him a relocation package he couldn’t turn down. Dave exchanged the beach for high rise living in Chicago and the opportunity to work for Price Waterhouse. Soon Ernst & Young came knocking and offered a Managerial position to return to California and head up the Tax Compliance Group encompassing 6 major communities of Northern California (San Francisco, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Sacramento, San Jose & Palo Alto). The dot.com era was upon us in the mid 90’s – and it seemed everyone in Northern California was becoming millionaires overnight.
Dave decided to try his hand at becoming a stockbroker for Dean Witter in the Palo Alto office. After a year, and still not a millionaire, Dave took a lateral transfer with Dean Witter and returned to Tulsa. Becoming a successful stockbroker proved to be a more difficult challenge and although Dave had acquired his series 7,31,63 & 65 licenses he also had his insurance license and decided to try insurance sales with Metropolitan Life. He spent the next 7 years working for MetLife in Tulsa and caring for his aging mother before accepting an eight county territorial position with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas based in Independence, KS.
While with BCBSKS Dave marketed and serviced companies, schools, municipalities & county governments with their health care plans. As a resident of Independence, KS. He was involved with the Chamber of Commerce and served as President of the Independence Rotary Club. After 13 years with BCBSKS, Dave retired to Tulsa but after 4 years of retirement he sold his Brookside childhood home and relocated to the “Sunshine State” in The Villages, FL. His remaining years were spent playing golf and enjoying all the activities offered at The Villages.
