Memories of David George Ehlert

In memory of

David George Ehlert

Asheville, NC

November 17, 1940 - January 5, 2018

Nov 17, 1940 - Jan 5, 2018

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Gary Schneeberg

I will always love this man and only have the fondest memories in the short 10+ years I was honored to me on this journey of life...the witty humor, contagious smile, strong Christian beliefs, and his endearing love for Kaaren and his family. What a beautiful man! I know he is already moving clouds and directing rainbows in order to keep a watchful eye on us all. I look forward to our joyous reunion our dear friend.

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Richard & Sally Tibbetts

Dave was a bright spirit, always full of cheer and a ready smile. We all enjoyed his fun visits and thoughtful comments. He was compassionate and caring - willing to help in any way. He lived his philosophy which was "Everyday is a gift - it's a great day". We will surely miss him on so many levels.

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Sara Kessler

Hudson, WI

Uncle Dave ( who, once we became adults insisted we just call him 'Dave') was always an encourager. It seems he would go out of his way to visit members of the Bloedel clan (His Sister Ardelle & Carl Bloedel) if he was near the Minneapolis area. I know my appreciation of good quality papers was some of his doing as I believe he worked in sales for Nekoosa papers and brought this budding artist sample books I still possess. He hired me to create his 'thumbs up' logo for The Idea Exchange, and that symbolized so much about Dave! After I was laid off, Dave arranged a coffee shop meeting with me as he drove through Hudson to encourage me in my job search and even followed it up a week later with a packet of quality resume paper! The quintessential people person, Dave put in a lot of work recording and tracing family roots, organizing family reunions and more recently, staying in touch via email. Dave always excelled at encouraging and spurring others on to excellence, never letting his business savvy overshadow his genuine care for people. We miss him already. But because of the promises of Christ Jesus - 'See you later, Dave!'

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Alexander Bloedel

2018, United States

It’s a great day to be alive! The very first time I remember meeting Uncle Dave he came to visit my family at our home in rural Iowa. He pulled in our long winding driveway in a silver Porsche. I had never seen a Porsche and being the young lad that I was, bursting with questions. “How fast does it go?” “What kind of job do you have to have to own one of these” “can we go for a drive” to which he replied, “it goes faster than your mom would want me to drive, I started out in sales and started my own company, and we can go for a drive later, but it has a really small back seat and I’m not sure I can fit all of you in it. After all my questions had been answered we played a game of “horse” on our brand new silo mounted basketball hoop. My dad had recently installed it for my brothers and I to play with. This was a pretty big deal as we lived in the country. Little did I know that 20 some years later Uncle Dave would beat my sons in basketball too. He would often say to us, “do you know what today is?” To which we would reply, “it’s a great day to be alive” and Uncle Dave would give a warm loving smile. His tempered enthusiasm is something that has stuck with me my whole life. I have never met someone quite like my Uncle Dave (Great Uncle Dave). Fast forward a couple of years and I would meet Uncle Dave again when he would travel from Atlanta Georgia and tour the Midwest making a point to visit family and friends from the area. Then the summer of 2002, before my first year of college I had the opportunity with my cousin Nate to go down to Georgia and paint white picket fences to earn some money for college. Nate and I were very impressed with the accommodations including our own room in the walkout level (we were told it’s not a basement as you could exit at ground level) with a private bathroom complete with Ritz Carlton embroidered towels. It was like staying in a five star hotel. The walkout exited to a beautiful garden area complete with walking paths and a patio. At Uncle Dave’s we ate like kings. Every couple of days we would go to the grocery store and pick out what we wanted. A never ending supply of sandwiches with a couple kinds of meat and cheese plus pop, chips and as Dave coined the term “el cheapo ice cream”- all the favorite food of young men. Nate and I would wake very early and start painting from sunup to around 10:30am. Then the mid morning showers would come and we would take a break in the air conditioned upstairs family room complete with an enormous tv and movie selection. We would pre-cover sections of fencing so we could continue to paint immediately after the morning showers. We were paid per picket so the more we painted the more money we made. We would work long days 12-14 hours and made a very large amount of money. Each night after a delicious home cooked meal we would cruise down Peachtree street blaring techno music and drinking Mountain Dew celebrating how we made “bank” that day. We worked hard and played hard. Every weekend afternoon Uncle Dave would find something fun to do including the Mario Andretti go cart speedway. It was a replica of a NASCAR racetrack only scaled down for go carts. We had the whole track to ourselves for a couple of hours and Nate, Dave and I literally drove the wheels of those go carts. I’ll never forget watching a tire fall off a go cart and go flying by right in front of me. We stayed I believe about 3 weeks and painted enough fences in the neighborhood to make every yard look like it had new fences free from the green mildew that would grow on them due to the heavy humidity and heat from bathing in the Georgia sun all day. Fast forward to the summer of 2003 the summer after my first year of college and Nate and I again road tripped down to Georgia along with Jesse, Nates brother, to paint pickets, do some custom power washing of driveways and help Dave paint a ridiculously tall hallway stairs in his church. Side note: no one could paint like uncle Dave he literally could paint in a dress shirt and slacks and never got a spilled drop on him or anything. He would always coach Nate and I to “put it on thick” Many more memories were made that I will cherish forever. Fast forward a couple of years and uncle Dave and his beautiful wife made it to my wedding in Mankato. I remember getting many wonderful gifts but Dave’s stuck out to me. It was a nice handmade throw blanket and a card complete with a large stack of $1 bills. Most people would have written a check or given a gift card but Dave used every opportunity to amaze. When you’re broke, fresh out of college and newly married and someone gives you a 100 dollars in one dollar bills - you remember. He also later sent a greeting card filled with nice photos he had taken with his wife that caught moments of our wedding no one else had and we are glad they did. Fast forward another year or so and Uncle Dave drove up from Georgia again and met our firstborn son on the day of his baptism. Every few months Dave and I would talk on the phone and catch up. He would offer business advice and counsel on life matters, we would talk about his latest projects and I would inquire more about his successful consulting business called The Idea Exchange. We would often talk about me coming down to visit him again and for years it was too difficult because of my growing family and my growing businesses. Then in August of 2016 I took my family on an epic 9 day road trip. We stopped in Kentucky along the way and saw the newly constructed Ark, at Ark Adventures a life size replica of Noah’s Ark. We experience the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and stayed 3 days with Dave and his wife beautiful wife Kaaren in Asheville, North Carolina before heading to the coast. We had such an amazing time but one day in particular I will never forget. Dave and my two oldest sons and I got up early one morning and drove into the mountains for about an hour to a place by the river where we then did white water rafting. Uncle Dave was 74 at this time, the reason I tell you this is because I was amazed at this mans energy. We got back that afternoon and I was tired and wanted to see what Larissa and the other two children were up to, but the boys wanted to go swimming again so we all went swimming for a few hours, Dave included. Then after swimming, I was really tired and wanted to go relax but my two oldest still had energy to burn so they asked if they could play basketball. Uncle Dave volunteered to take them on, solo, but what amazes me is upon hearing all about it on their return I found out Dave took them and bought them their own basketballs and had beat them at not just one game but two games! It reminded me of the time I had played Uncle Dave as a boy, many years ago. These a just a few of the highlights I experienced knowing Uncle Dave and I am comforted by the fact I know he is in Heaven. I had several deep conversations with Dave about all kinds of topics from politics to spiritual matters. I am blessed to have known Uncle Dave, for his friendship, his generosity, his good counsel on business matters, and many, many more reasons. I write this to share my wonderful memories I have about my Uncle Dave - he truly was Great!

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WILLIAM RUSSELL

2004, Destin, Florida, United States

After the untimely death of Dave's second wife, Dodi, he made a trip to Florida's Emerald Coast to visit old friends and (as he put it) "lick his wounds." By then a widower myself, wintering in Destin as a "snowbird', I arranged to meet Dave at the home of a lovely widow I had met and been courting until she agreed to marry me.
In response to Dave's despondency, I urged him to have faith that God might have a wonderful woman in store for him, as apparently God had provided for me. Dave's memorable response: "Well, if He does... and if I decide to get married again... I will want you to perform the wedding!"
Well... God did... and Dave did... and eventually I did... conduct that wedding for Dave and Kaaren in a poignant service in the Memorial Chapel beside the lake at Callaway Gardens... and the very special friendship Sherri and I have enjoyed with them both has been -- and still is -- one of the sweetest blessings of our life ever since!

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Char Bezanson

1958, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, United States

I have many fond memories of Uncle Dave, but this is probably my earliest one. My sister Barb and I were sent to Grandma's (Dave's mom) for a week or so in the summer. I might have been 6, and Barb a bit younger. Dave must have been in high school. I remember him showing off his talent with magic tricks, and stopping at the edge of cow pastures to “moo” until the cows would all come over. But what impressed me the most was that Dave took Barb and me to the Drive In Theater to see “The Shaggy Dog”- a great Disney movie. Afterwards, we went to the Dairy Queen for a cone- a real treat for two little girls who didn’t get “out” much! I think he might have had a girlfriend at the DQ, because after we finished our cones, Dave bought us ANOTHER one! He certainly made an impression on us- and I have to say that that kind of generosity and “gesture” was repeated in many ways throughout his life. He was always genuinely interested, even in the opinion of children. We’ll miss him!

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