David D. Willman 11-20-28 9-18-13
David D. Willman 11-20-28 9-18-13
“Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of
your Lord!” (Matthew 25:21)
David D. Willman entered heaven to be with his Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, on September 18, 2013, at a local hospital, with his family by
his side, singing hymns.
His life was one of service of others, from his first
volunteer job – as a safety patrol boy at Park School in Boise in the 1930s –
through the years he’d recently spent as president of Boise Valley Habitat for
Humanity. The quarter-century since he
left Ernst & Young represented a retirement in name only, as he threw
himself into working gratis for many of the hospitals that had formerly paid
for his work as a top CPA. His success in that field reflected not just an
aptitude for numbers but an instant familiarity he could achieve with any
stranger. David was by far the most outgoing member of an extended family
otherwise characterized by more shy and reserved types; he may never have met a
waiter whose name he didn’t learn before the menus were set down. How much
more, then, did those hail-fellow-well-met qualities extend to the love he gave
and received as the personable patriarch of the Willman clan.
David was born in Arco, Idaho on November 20, 1928, to Mamie
Szrambek Willman and Henry Willman. They homesteaded there until the Lost
River did not produce enough water for crops, and they moved to Boise in 1937.
He attended Boise (North) Junior High and graduated from Boise High in 1946.
He met his future wife, Betty Heckert, in the ninth grade in
journalism class when she invited him to a Job’s Daughters dance (which they
didn’t attend that time because neither knew how to dance!). They dated mostly
steady through junior and senior high school. They were advised to attend
different colleges, which they did, with Betty going to Linfield College and
David to Redlands University. He was at Redlands two years and it was the
time of the Korean War Conflict. He joined the 190
th
Squadron of the
Idaho Air National Guard in 1950 and was stationed in several places before his
discharge in 1953. He wanted to continue his education, so they moved to
California where he attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning both
his Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees in Business Administration. In
1955 he began his accounting career with Deloitte Haskins and Sells in San
Francisco.
They returned to Boise in 1960 where he joined Middleton,
Learned and Smith. The ML&S firm served a large health care client base
and David served as an auditor at both St. Luke’s Hospital and St. Alphonsus
Hospital.
David’s expertise in health care did not go unnoticed, and
after ML&S merged with one of the “Big Eight” accounting firms, Ernst &
Ernst, they asked him in 1968 to move to their national headquarters in Cleveland,
Ohio to start a new National Health Care Group. In 1967 Congress had
passed Medicare legislation which changed the face of the health care
industry. For the next ten years, David and Betty and their three children
lived in Cleveland – where David, as a partner in the firm, spent most of his
time traveling the U.S. between his firm and government offices in Washington, D.C.,
and to E&E offices all over the nation making presentations to clients,
giving seminars on health care opportunities, interpreting Medicare, and conducting
training sessions for staff. David was recognized as an outstanding specialist
in the health care field by the industry, the Social Security Administration,
and the firm.
He was transferred to the Los Angeles office in 1978, where
he served as client service executive for health care clients, and continued to
expand his reputation as a health care professional. In 1981, he was
instrumental in developing a Medicare group appeal approach for the firm’s
hospital appeal clients. In 1986, he was asked to spend one-third of his
time helping build the Oregon health care practice, a job and location he
greatly enjoyed. He retired in 1988, at which time he and Betty returned
to Boise.
All during these years, from 1960 to 1988, he served in a
volunteer capacity for many organizations, including Booth Memorial Centers
sponsored by the Salvation Army (in Boise, Cleveland and Los Angeles), Sisters
of the Holy Cross (in many cities in the U.S.), and Mended Hearts. He was
a charter member of the Healthcare Committee of the American Institute of CPAs
(AICPA) and presented with a national life membership to the association.
He also was a Charter member of the Principles and Practices Board of the
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).
After retirement, when he had moved back to Boise, he
plunged into service to others: in his church, Boise First Baptist, and
as President of Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity. He has served
continuously with HFH and, at the time of his death, was an active committee
member of the State Board of HFH, with an expertise in writing grant
applications. He was heading a committee, working up until his hospitalization
on recruiting local Boise churches to support Habitat for Humanity with money,
resources, and people to help build Habitat houses.
In what became a three-generation family tradition, David,
his daughter Kathy Grover, and his granddaughter Jenny Grover Royer all
served as Treasurer of the First Baptist Church of Boise. His son Dale
and his daughter Kathy Grover both followed in their father’s footsteps,
becoming CPAs. His son Chris is a respected writer of books and
articles about the entertainment industry.
David recently remarked that the best decision of his life
was to retire a few years early in order to spend time with his grandkids. But even
they sometimes literally had a hard time keeping up with him, so famously
boundless was his energy, even in his last years. He had double bypass surgery
in 1985 and became so determined not to repeat that experience that he devoted
himself to health and fitness… quite successfully, as his doctors never
imagined he’d be able to go a third of a century without a second bypass. That
incredible health rebound allowed him to spend most of his long retirement
still enjoying one of his favorite pastimes, skiing with his kids and grandkids
near the family cabin in McCall. He also channeled that enthusiasm into another
post-retirement pastime: hitting the statewide square dancing circuit with
Betty.
But what most characterized his retirement was the time
spent attending the activities of his six grandchildren – including school
functions, musical productions, volleyball, soccer, and football, as well as
the Navy graduation of David John. They were the joy of his life: Mindy Willman
and David John Willman, the two children of Dale and Beverly Willman; Jonathan Grover, Jenny Grover Royer, and
Julia Grover, the three children of Kathy Willman Grover and Ken Grover; and
Hadley Willman, daughter of Chris Willman and Cynthia Siemens Willman.
Two great-grandchildren, Marlies and Erik, recently born to Jenny and her
husband Roman Royer, have brought great joy to his life the past two years. David also had two “adopted” grandchildren,
Christophe Roberts and Audrey Tha Tha Mattson, whom he loved dearly and helped
with her college classes. There was little he wouldn’t partake in to please his
grandchildren, and family members often chuckled at the sight of an 84-year-old
man playing Mario Kart on the Wii.
Preceding him in death were his parents and sisters Anna May
Keating, Cecelia Willman, Martha Schupp, Roberta Dungan, and Virgil, a
brother. Raymond, a surviving brother, lives in Spokane. David is survived
also by many nieces and nephews who all adored him. He loved attending the
large-scale Willman family reunions that have been held in various spots around
the country since the 1980s. Although Raymond
is now the only survivor among David’s siblings, their descendants are an
unusually tight-knit extended family, and these reunions are expected to go on
as the legacy of the Willman brothers and sisters continues to be celebrated.
Memorials may be made in his name to the Boise First Baptist
Church, Boise Valley Habitat for Humanity, or the Humphries Diabetes Center.
Celebration of life services will be held at the First
Baptist Church, 13
th
and Washington Streets, at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 23
,
2013,
under the direction of the Alden-Waggoner Funeral Chapel.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of David D. Willman 11-20-28 9-18-13, please visit our flower store.
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