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Prayers for David Welch


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May his soul rest in peace.

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Without question, the nicest and funniest person I have ever had the privilege of calling a friend. I'll share a quote from Dave. He and I were shooting the stuff after the Clifton show in 2008. I was still in uniform. Dave was never afraid to be frank. This was the funniest thing anyone had said to me a LONG time.

"Drew, I can't really tell if your high notes are good or bad...but, they are definitely outrageous to say the least."

From hero, to legend.

FHNSAB

Edited by Drew Wilkie
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I received this via e-mail this afternoon:

Dearest Friends and Family of David Welch,

It is with great regret that we must share the news that David has lost his battle with brain cancer. He passed away Wednesday, January 7th at 6:22 PM in the company of his mother, father, brother and sister in the comfortable and familiar surroundings of his mother's home.

He remained comfortable and at peace throughout his last days and hours, but looked more at peace and like the David we all remember and love after he was gone. We remained with him after his passing and he had the familiar slight grin that many of you know. We take comfort in knowing that he is now whole again and no longer must fight this terrible battle. We are also especially proud of all that he has done for the fight against brain cancer and to help those in similar circumstances.

Arrangements are being handled by:

Advent Funeral

7211 Lee Highway,

Falls Church, VA 22046

http://www.adventfuneral.com/

The viewing will be on Tuesday, January 13th from 3:00-5:00 PM and 7:00-9:00 PM.

David's funeral service and celebration of his life will be held at:

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

4801 Ravensworth Road

Annandale, VA 22003

http://st-barnabaschurch.org/

The service will be on Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 AM, with interment in Eden Cemetery in Crescent City, FL.

We request, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made in David's name to:

The Brain Tumor Foundation

1350 Avenue of the Americas

Suite 1200

New York, NY 10019

http://www.braintumorfoundation.org/

For more details and a tribute video created by David's good friend Michael Collette, please visit 38 Lemon.

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I never met David, but his battle against cancer....the way he handled everything with grace and good spirits... was an inspiration to me, without question. May he rest in peace.

Fran

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To all of those close to David, our prayers in coming days will be that you gain the peace you need to move forward knowing that there is one more wonderful addition to that heavenly drum corps.....

I never "met" David, but through his site, we all "got to know him". May we all have the courage and grace to handle the problems in our life in the way that he handled those enormous battles he faced.

RIP David....

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I can't get words out right now. My mind is racing and the monitor is blurred through the tears. I think Eric put it best - David was the epitome of what it means to be a Cadet. And not just a Cadet - a Garfield Cadet. He played first mellophone from '84 through '87. If you were around in that era, you don't need any further explaination to understand what that means. If you weren't, then the words "larger than life" come close.

I was fortunate enough to struggle through and be a part of that corps in '87. Part of what made those corps great was that they were uncompromising - excellence was expected. For the mistake prone among us, that uncompromising attitude can have an ugly underside. When you screwed up, you knew it right away - and you better not do it again.

But David was unique. David was as uncompromising as anyone I've ever met. But he tempered it with compassion. Whereas some might say "you better do this, or else" David would say "I know you can do this, because we'll do it together". He always led by example, and was a fantastic motivator because of it. So much of what I learned about life through drum corps I owe to David Welch.

His uncompromising leadership carried through to every aspect of his life, from his schooling to his profession to his musicianship to his disease. When he was diagonsed with brain cancer, he chose to share his struggle with the world in a brutally honest fashion. Check out www.38Lemon.com to see what I mean. David took his condition and used it to raise awareness and support for others, and took it to a very high level. For those of us lucky enough to know David, that was inspiring, but hardly surprising.

I was truly blessed to spend nationals weekend with him this past year. Sitting together at finals, our group was rating the corps through the evening, eventually devising a scoring system based on puncutation. (Phantom won with "!", I had Cadets in second with "&" and Devils in third with "?"). There was a lot of laughter, a lot of love and a lot of drum corps. And that's just how I will remeber David.

March straight and true to victory, dear friend.

Edited by StuStu
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March straight and true to victory, dear friend.

AMEN!

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Got to work this afternoon and put 84 Garfield up on my laptop...had the speakers a little louder than usual...and tried to find where David was....aside from Barbara Maroney and Nadia, however, I don't know anyone else in the mello line...great alto book, and played to perfection.

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