David Schulz

1944 - 2024

David Schulz
October 14, 1944 - July 18, 2024
David Paul Schulz passed away, after an illness, on July 18, 2024. Born in San Francisco, CA to Delbert and Evelyn Schulz, the second of four children, he grew up in Richmond, CA, Sioux City, IA, Manhattan, KS, and Racine, WI. From an early age, his hands were always busy, creating. He worked in multiple media from the start, painting, drawing, carving and building in his father's workshop. He attended Racine Lutheran High School, where he competed in track and field.
After starting college in Racine, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to study art, where on a fateful night in a bar called The Three Bells, he met his future wife of more than 50 years, Carol Schultz.
In June of 1967, he was drafted into the Army's 25th Infantry Division and sent to Vietnam, where he served as a field radio operator and earned a Bronze Star for Valor.
When he returned to the United States, he went back to college briefly, but decided to join Carol in New York and begin work as a designer. They lived in a tiny West Village apartment with two cats, saving money to travel across Europe, a dream they shared.
Once they had saved enough to travel for a year, they realized it would only be enough for nine months due to the exchange rate. They flew to England, where Carol's father had bought them a Volkswagen Squareback for the trip. They proceeded to drive around Europe, from Amsterdam to Sicily, with their two cats. On the trip, they made lifelong friends wherever they went. They spent the final three months in Cefalu, Sicily, living in a tiny stone military building on a cliff, which sounds more romantic than it was.
When they returned to the US, they moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, but soon David found work as an illustrator at Xerox, and they moved to central Connecticut. There they remained, raising their three children Eden, Noah and Jonah, in Middletown. David became a freelance illustrator, with clients including the Hartford Courant, Aetna, and Connecticut Legal Services. Additionally, he illustrated several children's books.
When his children became involved in Oddfellows Playhouse, a youth theater in Middletown, he got involved too, creating iconic set and poster designs for more than forty productions over several decades. He was also a very desirable audience member due to his enthusiastic and raucous laughter. He became well-known around town for his funny - and pointed - political yard signs that became a destination for many Middletown residents.
An avid tennis player, David was a regular at courts across the city, often playing twice a day with different opponents. He was a sports fan as well, and an enthusiastic early supporter of the UConn women's basketball team, often making the drive to Storrs or Hartford to attend home games.
One of his last large art projects was the City of Middletown veteran's memorial - a series of large-scale portraits of veterans from the First World War onward, a project that connected him to many other local veterans and required deep and thoughtful research into his subjects. The piece is permanently installed in Middletown's city council chamber.
Survived by his sister, Marilyn Gesch, and brother, Ken Schulz, his three children, Eden, Noah, and Jonah, daughters-in-law, Maggie and Meghan, grandchildren, Eli and Jude, and beloved dog, Maddie. He was predeceased by his wife, Carol, and his sister, Margaret.
Donations can be made in his memory to Oddfellows Playhouse of Middletown, CT, Brown Dog Coalition & Rescue of Hopkinton, MA, and the Alzheimer's Association.