Frank David Cavalier

Frank David Cavalier, 89, passed away January 9, 2026. Frank was born in Sparta, Illinois on January 3, 1937 to parents Geneva DeWitt and Secundo Cavalier. He was the 5th of 8 children in the family of 4 boys and 4 girls. He graduated from Sparta High School in 1955, and from the University of Missouri Engineering School - Rolla School of Mines and Metallurgy with a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1959. He received his MBA from SMU in Dallas in 1983. His first job after his college graduation was with RCA in Camden, NJ where he worked on the project of the US Army Field Data mobile Computer named Microrac.

He served in the US Army Corps of Engineers as a 2nd Lt having received that rank from his ROTC training in college.

He married Pat McSmith in 1960 who also had grown up in Sparta, IL until age 15 and whose older sister Doris had married Frank's older brother Richard 8 years earlier. Frank and Pat's three children were all born in Camden, NJ: Theresa '61, David '62 and Carol '63. In 1963 Frank was transferred to Tucson, AZ with RCA and later that year was hired by Cinch Graphic of CA who was purchased by TRW Electronics where Frank went from engineer to Tech Rep to Sales and lived in Hacienda Heights, CA and then Warminster, PA. When he became European Sales Director he and his family lived in Paris, France from 1974 to 1977, and in Munich, Germany 1977-78. Upon his return to the U S he was named East Coast Sales Director and lived in Plano, TX until he resigned in 1984 and became Vice President of Marketing for Metropolitan Circuits and moved to El Toro, CA now called Lake Forest, CA. In 1985 he started his own consulting company called Cavaco International and assisted European electronic distribution firms find US electronic manufacturing firms to sell their products. He and Pat moved to Santa Cruz in 1994 to be closer to his Silicon Valley clientele. He retired in 2017, and shortly thereafter his Alzheimer's symptoms appeared.

Frank was a high school athlete playing football and basketball. He later became a golfer, water skier, snow skier, trail bike motorcycle rider, off-road vehicle driver and a fanatic cribbage player.

Surviving are his wife, Pat, their son David Cavalier, daughter Carol (Ron) Schweigert, grandchildren Victoria Cavalier (Harry) Chapin, Blaise Cavalier, Luc Cavalier, and Kristi Schweigert.

Predeceased family included their daughter Theresa Gillespie in1989 and their grandson Trey Schweigert in 2018.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in Frank's name may be made to the Santa Cruz Hospice organization, the T-3 Memorial Fund at the Skagit Valley Family YMCA (in memory of grandson Trey). They express their huge appreciation to Santa Cruz Hospice nurse Magda Mathis and to De Un Amor Memory Care facility in Corralitos for their compassionate care and service.

A funeral Mass and reception will be held at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Capitola on Friday, February 6 at 11:00 AM for family and friends.