Obituary of David Francis Ritchie

January 24, 1961 – December 26, 2018

David Francis Ritchie.  Age 57 of Brighton.

Beloved husband of Gloria Ritchie.  Loving father of Ryan Ritchie.  Dearest brother of Dale (Antoinette) Ritchie, Leah Lucy, Donna (Wayne) Seward, Kurt (Cindy) Ritchie, Martha (Larry) Tapp and Adam (Liza) Ritchie.  Also survived by many nieces, nephews, in-laws, and a large extended family.

David faithfully served in the United States Army in Germany for 4 years.  

Family Tribute

David was born the 6th child of seven in Wyandotte, MI.  He had 3 brothers and 3 sisters. He graduated from Southgate Schafer High School in 1979.  He was a superstar athlete.  Playing football, basketball and baseball all four years. David loved music and even played percussion in the high school band. He started playing golf for fun early on and continued to love and play the rest of his life. He was a super sports fan, always rooting for University of Michigan teams.

He lived in Southgate, MI with his family until he joined the military and served 5 years. Four in Germany and one in Colorado. In the service, he learned his trade in Telecommunications.  He maintained a career in telecommunications for over 30 years.  He attended Henry Ford Community College. He worked for several companies over the years Allnet, Motorola, Global Crossing and most recently Bullseye Telecommunications.

David was an amazing person.  He was honest, kind, caring and giving his entire life.  He loved animals of all kinds, especially dogs.  He had a special bond with them.  Murphy and Maude were his beloved family pets.

By far, David’s pride and joy was his family.  He married his high school sweetheart Gloria.  They dated for 5 years and were married for nearly 35 years living in Brighton, MI.  They were best friends and soul mates.  Their son, Ryan was a miracle.  Their only child, took over ten years to arrive. David was a devoted father.  He coached sports and mentored Ryan in all areas of his life.  Ryan is now 18 and is a kind and caring young man.  David’s love of music blossomed in Ryan. They attended many concerts together.  Ryan is now a music major (bassoon performance) at college, a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.  His love for his son shown through, above everything else in his life.  It brought him great joy!

David battled with a rare and aggressive form cancer for an entire year.  The strength that he showed during that time, especially the last 3 months of his life in the hospital were unbelievable.  He was truly and angel on earth and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.