David Sansing

1955 - 2021

(News story)
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer


David Sansing, who was skilled in the art of selling - shoes, appliances, mattresses and, as an honored Toledo Zoo volunteer, the institution and its inhabitants, one animal tale at a time, died Sunday at Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue. He was 66.

He had cancer, said Cheryl Sansing, his wife.

He closed his sales career in early 2020 at the Art Van Pure Sleep store at Monroe Street and Talmadge Road. He'd earlier been Pure Sleep's manager for training. He worked the longest, 22 years, for Banner Mattress & Furniture, becoming an assistant manager for the local retailer before returning to sales.

"He decided he wanted to be a sales person. He'd been at every Banner in Toledo and Oregon," his wife said. "He was very good at sales. He was very people oriented. I don't know he ever met a person he didn't like or didn't like him.

"He knew his product and knew it well," she said.

Mr. Sansing of Oregon earlier worked for the former Fretter Appliance on Monroe Street. At Knapp Shoes, he was a district manager for a territory that included Columbus, Lower Michigan, and Buffalo. Early on, he had manager duties at Nobil Shoes stores in Lima, Ohio and at Southwyck, Southland, and Swayne Field shopping centers in Toledo.

"He had an attention to detail," his wife said. "He had a sense of organization about him when it came to business."

When giant pandas Le Le and Nan Nan came to the Toledo Zoo in 1988 from China, Mr. Sansing decided to join the Zoo-Loo group, which supported membership efforts.

He later moved to the Zoo Educator program.

"He fell in love with the education," his wife said.

He learned about the animals in detail - lowland gorillas were his favorite - and of the zoo's historic Works Progress Administration buildings.

"He just loved animals, and the zoo was his favorite place," his wife said. "He liked to be out with the public and talk with people. He liked to educate people on the animals."

In all, he put in 4,794½ hours over 33 years, said Bill Davis, the zoo's director of volunteers. Mr. Sansing was named Volunteer of the Year in 2004 and received the President's Volunteer Service Award in 2013.

"He wanted people to feel as excited about the zoo and the animals as he did," Mr. Davis said. "He was proud of knowing the zoo on a level not everyone gets to know."

He led demonstrations over the years, including programs for sharks, penguins, and polar bears. He supported queue lines when elephants Louie and Lucas were born - "and even helped our keepers when they were endeavoring to get Renee [the elephant] pregnant through artificial insemination. He volunteered to drive blood samples for testing to [Medical College of Ohio] and even flew to Florida to transport a semen sample from a donor elephant back to Toledo," Mr. Davis said.

He was born Jan. 10, 1955, to Imelda and Clarence Sansing and grew up in East Toledo, where he graduated Waite High School in 1973.

Surviving are his wife, the former Cheryl Platvoet, whom he married March 26, 1977; sons, Seth and Thomas Sansing; five grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

Memorial services will begin at 1 p.m. Friday in Freck Funeral Chapel, Oregon, where family and friends may visit after 11 a.m.

The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Zoo.