Edward David

Edward J. David, age 84, died peacefully with his loving family by his side on Tuesday, December 13, 2022 at his home at White Meadow Lake in Rockaway Township, New Jersey.
Ed was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on February 25, 1938, the son of the late William David and Amelia Mushik David. He grew up in Lower Throop, Pennsylvania and following the untimely death of his father when Ed was only six years old, he moved with his mother to Harrison, New Jersey. Ed graduated from Kearny High School in 1956, served in the Marine Reserves and later joined the United States Air Force, where he served at bases in California, Washington, D.C., and Greenland. Upon returning home, he met and married the love of his life, Mary M. Sholler from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. They bought a house at White Meadow Lake where they raised two children, a daughter (Erin) and a son (Joseph).
After leaving the Air Force, Ed started working at AT&T Western Electric in Kearny, New Jersey, and he stayed with the same company until his retirement in 2009. During that time, he transferred to AT&T Bell Labs (later Alcatel Lucent and now Nokia) in Murray Hill, where he worked as an Instrument Control Mechanic. He had many hobbies, including having the incredible patience to build spectacularly detailed scale buildings for model railroads. He loved sports and grew up as a fan of the Boston Red Sox and New York (Football) Giants, later in life he became a huge New Jersey Devils hockey fan and even attended Stanley Cup Finals games. He loved music and especially Neil Diamond, who he saw in concert many times. Ed loved reading National Geographic every month, he loved doing crossword puzzles every morning, he collected stamps and baseball cards, he was a bowling league champion, he loved watching funny movies and Battlebots, but more than any of that, he loved spending time with his friends and family, and especially cherished his time as Pop Pop with his two granddaughters, Kira and Darma Alverson.
Ed instilled his love of travel in his children and took the family on road trips every year and on adventures almost every weekend growing up. He visited all 50 states and especially loved Acadia National Park in Maine. Following his retirement, Ed and Mary started going on cruises, and during that time they became experts having gone on close to 50 of them, visiting places including Alaska, Hawaii, Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Italy, Russia, Egypt, Mexico and just about every possible destination in the Caribbean. Ed also traveled every year for his birthday with his son, going to see hockey games in almost every NHL arena in the U.S. and Canada, as well as to see Major League Baseball games in over half of the stadiums in the country.
He was preceded in death in 2015 by his beloved spouse of almost 50 years, Mary M. David, a retired first-grade teacher from Stony Brook School in Rockaway. Later that same year, he also unexpectedly lost his precious granddaughter Darma Alverson. Ed is survived by his sister Nancy Denkinger from Chase City, Virginia, daughter Erin Alverson, son-in-law Erik Alverson, and granddaughter Kira Alverson from Denville and son Joseph from Rockaway, as well as many friends and extended family members. Ed lived a wonderful, long life and will be missed by everyone who was lucky enough to know him.
Visitation will be Monday, December 19, 2022 from 4:30 to 7:30 PM at Whitham-Kanapaux Funeral Home, Rockaway, New Jersey. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Cecilia Church, 70 Church St, Rockaway on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, at 10:00AM. Burial will follow at St. Cecilia Cemetery in Rockaway.
The family welcomes donations to the New Jersey Sharing Network as an expression of sympathy instead of flowers. Please direct your donations at the New Jersey Sharing Network to Team Darma Alverson (njsharingnetwork.org ).