David Dee Dalenberg was born on February 20, 1936.  He was the second son of Clarence (“Soap”) Dalenberg, a building contractor and woodworker, and Jennie Rietveld Dalenberg, a progressive thinker who loved to entertain. 

David and his older brother, Claude, grew up in the very Dutch community of South Holland, Illinois.  The family spent summers in New Buffalo, Michigan, where David’s love of boating and water sports were born.  While in his late teens, he built his own wooden boat.

David graduated from Thornton Township High School in 1954.  With an early interest in aeronautical engineering, he attended Purdue University and Western Michigan College before ultimately transferring to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  While at the U of I, David joined the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and shifted his academic focus to the world of business.  David received his undergraduate degree in 1958.

David married Ruth Ann DeYoung, a fellow South Hollander, in June of 1958.  There followed a succession of four daughters over the next decade: Jill in 1959, Heidi in 1961, Gretchen in 1964, and Liesl in 1967.  During that time, David also enlisted in the Air National Guard and pursued graduate coursework in Labor and Industrial Relations.

David’s early career path foreshadowed his later professional interests in logistics and computers.  Summers during college, he drove a stone truck out of Thornton Quarry.  His early professional jobs included stints with Sangamo Electric, Miles Laboratories, Zenith, and Bell and Howell.

David Dee Dalenberg, age 81, of Manalapan, Florida, died Thursday, August 3, 2017 after a brief and sudden illness and surrounded by his family.  Born February 20, 1936, in Roseland (Chicago), Illinois, he was the son of the late C.W. Clarence Dalenberg and Jennie (Rietveld) Dalenberg.

David graduated from the University of Illinois with an engineering degree, but at his heart, David was an entrepreneur. He and his wife, Sharon, ran a logistics business in Chicago. After David retired to Florida, he continued to serve CTL Global in a consulting capacity. His innovative thinking and engineering background played a key role in the company’s success. David was most in his element when working on strategic planning, and had a unique way of challenging others into becoming their best selves. In his quiet moments away from work, he loved his boats, his poodles, and private time with his family. 

He was predeceased by his parents and older brother, Claude. He is survived by his loving wife of thirty-five years, Sharon (Siegfried) Reese Dalenberg; four daughters, Jill (Jack) Thompson, Heidi Dalenberg, Gretchen (David) Parker, and Liesl (Sam) Eathington; three grandchildren, J. Matthew Thompson, Michael (Trisha) Thompson, and Ainslee Parker; nieces Diane Schoonover and Laura Crowden; nephews Brian Miller, Jeff Siegfried, Eric Siegfried, Justin Miller, Josh Miller, and Joshua Waterman-Siegfried; and other loving relatives and friends. He will be missed by all, including his CTL Global family and the many others whose lives he touched.

David was a true patriarch. His favorite show on television was Blue Bloods because he loved Tom Selleck's character in the way he presided over the Sunday dinner table. There's nothing better than a Sunday dinner with a great big roast beef. His recent Sundays in Chicago included his wife, Sharon, and his grandchildren.

When he wasn't presiding over his own Sunday dinners in Chicago, he spent his time in Florida with his wife, Sharon, sister-in-law, Helen, his boat, the Dutchman, and his beloved poodles, Lexus, Izzy, Sophie, and Lucy.