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David Willmott Sr, publisher of Suffolk Life Newspapers, passed away the morning of August 9th. Dave was truly a giant of a man. He started Suffolk Life Newspapers in his garage. When he started talking to printers to print his product, they all thought he was out of his mind. Despite the naysayers, Dave built Suffolk Life up to a 35 edition product with a circulation of over 500,000. He managed a gigantic team of people and supported many, many families with his business. A tireless worker, Dave always lead by example. Dave was an avid fisherman and loved to go out to the Hudson 'canyon' on his sport fisherman. But no matter how well the fish were biting, he would always stay at the office late Friday night to make sure the paper got out on deadline.

In the 1980's, when the newspaper vendor CDS was sold to Ingersoll, Dave realized that his competitor was now his system provider. He had the foresight to hire on three of the old technicians to support him directly. Not one to sit still, Dave eventually decided to start his own software company, which he called Brainworks. In 1996, Dave decided he had climbed that mountain and wanted more time to focus on his newspaper company, which let to my acquisition of Brainworks.

One of Dave's most endearing qualities was that Dave would always tell you what he was thinking. Dave had no fear of telling anything less than the absolute truth. I remember well, and with great fondness, all of my conversations with Dave, because everything he said always had a tremendous amount of value - even the most casual comment was based on his tremendous life experience and his enormous personal integrity. For that reason, many, many, very substantial individuals would flock to meet with Dave. The governor of New York would fly down in his helicopter, land it in the parking lot, meet with Dave, and fly back up to Albany.

Dave was a man of faith, hard work, and rock-solid old-fashioned values. He would drive a hard bargain on every deal but would then make sure he paid every penny - his word was his bond. Dave was a 'what you see is what you get' guy. Hundreds of thousands of people enjoyed Dave's insights every week when they read his column 'Willmotts and Why-Nots.' Dave was the living embodiment of the expression "some people see things that are and ask, Why? I dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?" As such, in his weekly column, Dave would always present an innovative insight, idea, or fresh approach to a problem and then end his column with the expression - 'and why not?'

Dave was a big believer in personal initiative. He lived it, and expected it from his team. But all the same, he had great empathy for those less fortunate. Dave assembled a group of benefactors called 'The Group'. Completely anonymously, they purchased an enormous amount of Christmas presents every year and distributed them to families in need. Dave even donated his office space and many hours of his employees' time to wrap the gifts. And they went out anonymously - not one of the many hundreds of children he helped ever knew the gifts came from Dave, and that was exactly the way Dave wanted it.

I'll miss Dave a lot. But I feel very fortunate to have known a man who possessed so many qualities that, individually are rare, but to see them all in one person, that was really something amazing.

Tight Lines, Dave - we'll miss you.