David Wesley Fike

David Fike of Lawrenceville Georgia passed away on November 2, 2023 after a long illness. He was 84 years old, born on March 30, 1939 in his grandfather’s house in Starkweather, North Dakota to Carrie and Arnold Fike. He was the youngest of four brothers. Carrie’s father rode a bicycle from Indiana to Starkweather to homestead in the late 19th century. He persuaded his son-in-law to join him in the fields and helped him establish his own farm.

David vividly recounts his father working on the house, applying his mechanical acumen in creative ways such as when he used hydraulic power to drive a water line through the ground from the well to the house to avoid digging a trench. One of the most enduring of David’s memories was participating in the harvest and in his final days dreamed he was back helping his father gather in the grain. In the summer following his high school graduation, David left the farm, following his older brother to Chicago to look for a summer job. After much searching he found work at a dry ice company, sweeping floors, cutting dry ice blocks and anything else they needed done. Little did he realize that he would remain in this industry for the next half century. During this summer while walking down N. Wolcott Ave, he met a beautiful girl named Judy who was sitting on the steps of her building socializing as urban teens did in the 1950’s. He asked her age and she told him sixteen-and-a-half rather than the truthful fourteen-and-a-half. Two sons and eleven grandchildren owe their existence to this fib that, delivered in her winsome form, he received uncritically.

He returned home after the summer to attend the University of North Dakota, but the next summer he decided to leave school and find his fortunes back in Chicago near Judy. He returned to the dry ice company and through his diligence and hard work he quickly advanced. He started cutting dry ice blocks, moved up to delivery, then sales, and ultimately headed up the white collar executive path. He wanted to marry Judy but her parents refused, considering her too young and immature to be married. However, when he received a notice from the Selective Service Board to report for a medical exam, they knew he would soon be drafted and so relented, not wanting to lose David as a son-in-law. They were married on June 9, 1962.

After his basic training, she headed down south and they were reunited, living on or near the bases where David was stationed. After his discharge, his old company hired him back, sending him to St. Paul where he continued his advance up the corporate ladder ultimately to Vice President. During this time Judy, after a tragic miscarriage, gave birth to Torrence Fike in 1968. A few years later his company sent them to Chicago and the family settled in Schaumburg. It was during this time that a neighbor invited them to Bethel Baptist Church where they experienced God’s saving grace. After losing another baby, Adam Fike was born in 1980. This was a difficult pregnancy in which Judy had to lay down for most of the nine months while her husband and son waited on her hand and foot, taking care of everything around the house.

In 1983 David’s company intended to relocate him to California with no increase in salary, so he accepted a better offer from a CO2 company in the Atlanta area. The family subsequently relocated to Lawrenceville, Georgia, though David made sure to plan frequent business trips to Chicago to help Judy’s parents as they advanced in age. Judy’s father died in 2012 and David, being a faithful son-in-law, insisted that her mother move down to Lawrenceville where they took care of her at home until her death in 2016.

David retired from the CO2/dry ice industry and began working at Home Depot in 2014. His green thumb from the farm made his garden department the most envied and verdant in the region. In 2019 he recognized the signs of a heart attack while at work and drove across the street to Northside Gwinnett Hospital, where they saved his life. After recovering from heart surgery, he returned to his beloved garden department. Unfortunately, within a few years his health problems mounted and he was unable to work. Northside hospital saved him many times, especially the amazing nurses of the 4th floor cardiac unit, but he ultimately lost the battle. His family is very thankful for the time God gave him near the end for mutual expressions of gratitude and love.

Popa, as he is known to his grandchildren, is remembered as loving, generous, merciful, kind to the poor and lowly, protective, industrious, resourceful, gentle, though willing to confront injustice, and a great lover of animals.

David Fike is survived by his wife of 61 years, Judy, two brothers, Dwayne (Theresa) and Jerry, two sons, Torrey (Terrilynn) and Adam (Nicole), and eleven grandchildren, Ruthie, Ari, Elly, Percy, Avie, Ivy Jo, Olive, Wick, Willow, Winston, and Meyer. He was preceded in death by his parents Arnold and Carrie, and brother Art.

A visitation will be held at Wages and Sons Funeral Home in Lawrenceville at noon on November 18, 2023, followed by a memorial service at 1 PM. A graveside service will follow at Crest Lawn Memorial Park in Atlanta.

For any that share David’s deep love of animals, you are encouraged to donate to the Humane Society or ASPCA in lieu of flowers.

A special thanks to Northside Gwinnett Hospital that saved David’s life multiple times, Life Care of Lawrenceville that rehabilitated him so that he could return home multiple times, and most of all, the nurses of Northside Gwinnett’s 4th Floor Cardiac unit who continued laboring over him after the doctors gave up all hope, and in so doing purchased for him many precious months of life.