David Robert Gordon

June 21st, 2015

I was David’s freshman roommate at Dartmouth, and lifelong friend. David was kind and loyal and smart and generous, and I LOVED our endless games of “Acquire” and cribbage. Our friendship was tested (Hahaha) when David did not get the covered WCC (“World Cribbage Council”) Trophy, learning he had just won a “non-title match”; David went on to found the JCC (“Jewish Cribbage Council”). That sad organization limped on to graduation but never really amounted to much.

And, NO, DAVE!!!, chess is not a “sport”!!!!!

David was the happiest family man I have ever known. He was so proud of Ethan and Gabe, and he loved Lauren with all he had!

I will miss you, Dave!!! You were a great and loyal friend, you had SUCH integrity!, you were so smart (yet wrong about so much!), you were a great man, Robert

~robert sanborn
~friend, chicago

June 20th, 2015

I remember David as a man of unquestioned integrity. He always told it like it was.

Many, many times several of us would head to the college game room following a Thayer “meal plan” feast. Pinball and a smattering of early electronic arcade games were the order of the day. In the end, we would invariably gather around one of the pinball machines that Gordo would dominate with great hand-eye coordination and complex probability calculations applied to flipper speed, bumper rebound characteristics, and ball return slots.

Dave was also one of the finest intramural hockey goalies of the late 70’s.

He will be greatly missed, and his family is in our thoughts and prayers.

~Mark Flom
~Fraternity Brother, Atlanta, Georgia

June 19th, 2015

I worked with David at Mercer and in the 20+ years since, David and other former Mercer employees met for dinner on a regular basis. David was liked by all of his colleagues and he will be sorely missed by anyone who knew him. My prayers go out to Lauren and David’s sons.

Jim Kreamer

~James Kreamer
~Friend, Naperville, IL

June 19th, 2015

David and I worked together as actuarial students at Mercer. I lived out in Valparaiso, Indiana and David always teased me about living in the boonies. He put a sticker on the back of this photo saying “Janet, Remember to always keep smiling (even if you do live in Valparaiso!) David.”

He ran our office football pool and took us on field trips to watch off track races. Once at my going away party from Mercer, I drank too much roditas wine at the Greek Islands. He loved to tease me about drinking roditas.

We have stayed in touch over the years and I always looked forward to seeing him at our Mercer dinners and to hear about Lauren and his wonderful boys. We will all miss him and our dinners won’t ever be the same.

Janet (McMartin) Barr

~Janet Barr
~Friend, Downers Grove, IL

June 19th, 2015

We also remember Dave for his prowess in sports and games …
– stalwart hockey goalie
– super-quick on the foosball / pong table
– retired champion of the highly-coveted JCC title.

~Jeffrey Poorman
~Friend, Bronxville, NY

June 18th, 2015

I was floored to hear yesterday of David’s passing. I owed him a call for a while but was so down I could not face the prospect of telling my friend how bad things were going for me. I know that he truly empathized and he would be in pain. Now that things had begun to look up, Gordo was the first one I wanted to tell. I was hours too late. There is something in that timing that I am still working on.

I spent the rest of the day tracking down our frat brothers. After the sadness, we told old stories. The same ones we’ve been telling each other for close to 40 years. Each more funny than the next we had our own celebration of David’s life.

Just a few of my memories:

103 LR and cards and cribbage to Zeppelin all day and night
The battle of Gordo’s snore vs. Robert’s feet.
The football players and the bus joke which I never got but Gordo would laugh himself speechless
David saving me from a murder rap at my initiation to the house.
Road trips in the coupe de ville, particularly the one to Jai Alai in Hartford and Flom’s bee sting on the butt.
(My mom took to Gordo because he loved her cooking. Gordo took to my little sister–good thing that didn’t take. He was destined for Lauren.)
Dwayne Gould’s crashing into a tree on the Green and Gordo and I trying to stop the press from taking pics.
Gordo’s toads-the best and the worst-and the time when a snowed out party left us to finish a garbage can filled with them ourselves-David slid down the master stairs backwards and face down. I out did my friend by falling out of the stadium the next week.

Animal House was nothing compared to our lives back then.

We saw each other too seldom after that for a long while but when we did it was terrific. A reunion in NYC, a great weekend in Vegas (when David’s horse won a feature race), a pool party in Florida with wives and kids, and of course at all of our weddings.

We saw more of each other when I got into the steel business as I always stayed in Chicago. Thanks Lauren for not getting too upset with Gordo or me for those reenactments of our youth. I don’t know how he made it home on the train some nights when I could barely make it up the elevator.

I last saw Gordo at my son’s bar mitzvah in New York and we had a great time. See the photo-4 of us plus wives. Not a bad showing. Someone must paste the picture of us playing foosball. Leslie? Ann?

I knew David for close to 39 years and it was too short by half. We connected fast on that early September day in 1976. Gabe and Ethan, your Dad showed me what courage was–he was grieving the recent loss of his father while enduring those first frightening days of college. No doubt that he was a man at 18. Maybe it was that we were the only two Jewish guys in the platoon (pledge class) that made us close. I don’t know but it feels that a part of me is now missing.

I will dedicate the Shabbas service I run tomorrow to my friend David. I hope to make it through the Kaddish without loosing it.

Thanks for making me laugh, so many times, my friend. I will miss you deeply.

Marc “Greenie” Segalman
JCC Co-Captain

~Marc Segalman
~Friend/Fraternity Brother, West Hartford, CT

June 18th, 2015

Our quiet David never let us down at Halloween. He always stole the show with his “best in class” costumes! David was known as the “person to beat” around the office. A real class act!

~Mary Sebby
~Colleague, Romeoville, IL

June 18th, 2015

David was a fraternity “brother” in the best sense of the word.
I feel blessed to have know this special person during his college years.

~Jeff Poorman
~Friend, Bronxville, NY