David Jaeger departed on October 17, 2024, a day after his 86th birthday. His life started in Hanford, CA until his parents got the itch to become gentlemen farmers and moved the family to Carpinteria to realize their lemon ranching dreams. David had many stories from his childhood escapades on the ranch and, honestly, we’re surprised child protective services weren’t called, and that he survived to adulthood! His most famous tale was of him and his brother banging bullets with hammers against boulders to see what would happen. The family migrated north to Millbrae, CA where David spent his formative teen years and attended Capuchino High School while playing football. He went on to study business administration at Fresno State University, where he became a lifelong Bulldog football fan. Shortly before college graduation, he met his future wife Cynthia Malone on a blind date and made the only quick, spontaneous decision of his life and asked her to marry him 10 days after they first met! The newlyweds packed up their household and moved to the Bay Area while David pursued an MBA at UC Berkeley where they had front row seats to the tumultuous political and cultural upheavals in California during the 1960s. More amusing stories and experiences were had while he supported himself through grad school by valet parking cars at San Francisco International airport and working as a caddie at a local golf course - apparently Frank Sinatra was a stingy tipper!

After graduating Cal, David was quickly snapped up by The Boeing Company where he spent his career in the Seattle area working his way through the ranks, specializing in financing major airplane fleet sales and attempting to save struggling airlines from bankruptcy - can we say Eastern, Pan Am, and Braniff…He thoroughly enjoyed and found purpose in the aerospace industry despite his abject white-knuckle-flying fears. David and his family had the pleasure of meeting and being friends with various heads of state, CEOs, and politicians through his ties with Boeing, and David traveled the world extensively on the quest for the next deal. His favorite stories came from his travels to Jordan, Lebanon, and Uganda while deftly navigating coups, wars, dictatorships, civil unrest, and abject 3rd world poverty situations in Africa and South America. David's favorite story to entertain dinner guests was witnessing a political assassination in Africa where the poor soul was killed by bolas in close proximity to him - David then attended a business meeting and found the body in the same location as he returned to his hotel a few hours later. And his wife wondered why a lot of people weren’t repeat dinner guests at their house…David’s final professional role was Vice President and Treasurer of Boeing, along with being charged with investment management of the company’s employee pension plan. His investment acuity benefited all Boeing employees, as well as his friends and family who took his investment advice over the years. He was highly regarded (and sometimes feared) professionally and earned the nickname of “Dr. No” in the aerospace community due to his refusal to grant concessions during heated deal negotiations.

David’s true passions in life were attending college football games (Go Huskies!), watching the original Pink Panther movies, range shooting with his impressive gun arsenal that could outfit a neighborhood during a zombie apocalypse, golfing his way around the world (his favorites were Spyglass and Pebble Beach), climbing Mt. Rainier with Lou Whittaker, taking his boats out on Lake Washington and around the San Juan Islands, navigating the challenging waters of the Inside Passage, salmon fishing near his summer home on Lopez Island, and tinkering with and repairing his cars and boats before the addition of sophisticated onboard computers ruined his aspirations as a weekend mechanic. He fancied himself an expert at horse racing handicapping, and he and his BFF Al Q. could often be found at Longacres, Santa Anita, and Del Mar on the weekends. He spent hours feverishly handicapping in preparation for each race day and employed his then under-age daughter to place his bets at the windows to encourage her to follow in his love of the races.

One of the truly admirable things about David is that he never cheated on anything, including his golf handicap or taxes, and always strived to do the right thing for himself and those around him. In his final years, he thoroughly enjoyed weekly poker games with his neighborhood homies where they exchanged libations and tall tales of their amazing lives.

His family would like to send heartfelt thanks to his nurse, Mollie, and CNA, Rachel, for their amazing care, kindness, and tireless efforts on David’s behalf.

David’s wife and daughter invite his family, close friends, and neighbors to his celebration of life being held on Saturday, March 1st at his favorite local restaurant Johnny Mac’s (thank you John for all of David’s double Ketel Ones on the house over the years!), 842 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, from 3pm to 5pm. We can raise a glass and a slice of pie to honor our former titan.

Kindly RSVP via text to 206-484-0490 if you plan to attend - the venue must have a head count!

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