Pastor Dave has been joyfully serving at Salem since October 2009. In 1981, he graduated from the University of the Pacific with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He then spent the following 20 years in a successful business career in which he literally traveled all over the world. In the fall of 2001, he answered God’s call to ordained ministry and began seminary at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City until he could move to Chicago to attend Luther School of Theology. He graduated from Luther School of Theology with a Master of Divinity degree in May 2007. He served his first call at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park, and after two-and-a-half years as an associate pastor there, felt it was time to answer God’s wider call, which brought him to Salem.

Pastor Dave and his wife, Jill, were married in 1980 and have three children. Jill is a court reporter, a career she has enjoyed off and on since 1980. Their son, D.J., and his wife, Lori, live in Shawnee with their daughter, Addison. D.J. is the Director of Youth Ministry at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park and Lori is a Digital Supervisor at Zillner, a local marketing and advertising agency. Pastor Dave and Jill’s oldest daughter, Christine, lives in Austin, Texas, where she is an ER Nurse at The Heart Hospital of Austin. Dana, their youngest daughter, is a junior at the University of Kansas, majoring in math. In their free time, Dave and Jill love to spoil Addison, travel, and cook gourmet meals at home together.