David G. Westlake

David Glenn Westlake, 85, flew west on Friday, February 23, 2024.

David was born on June 5, 1938, to Glenn and Grace (Metz) Westlake in Geneva, Illinois.  Most of his youth was spent in Lombard, Illinois, where his father was superintendent of schools.  He was active in the Boy Scouts, earning the distinction of Order of the Arrow.  After graduating from Glenbard High School in 1956, Dave attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he became a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

He spent ten years in the U. S. Navy, having joined the reserves as a high school senior, and participating in NROTC at Miami University. He was called to active service in 1958 and deployed to Miramar Naval Air Station, San Diego.  While there, he applied and was selected to attend Naval Aviation Cadet training in Pensacola, Florida.  He was commissioned Ensign and awarded his Wings Of Gold on August 9, 1961.

On August 19, 1961, he married the girl next door, Sybil Peterson, in Lombard. (He opined that he was a bachelor officer for only ten days.) Their love would last for 63 happy years.

During his Navy career he served on five aircraft carriers: Bennington, Ticonderoga, Antietam (where he qualified for carrier landing), Randolph, and Lake Champlain.  While at Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island, he flew jet helicopters in an anti-submarine hunter-killer task force.  In October of 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, he took part in the blockade of Soviet ships in the Caribbean.

In 1965, Lieutenant Westlake was honorably discharged from the Navy and hired by United Airlines.  In his 33 years with United he flew DC-6, Viscount, Caravelle, Boeings 727, 737, 747,757,767, and retired as Captain on the Boeing 777 in 1998.

In 1972, the family settled on the farm near Reeseville, Wisconsin.  There they raised registered Angus cattle.  Dave was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reeseville, where he served as an elder on the church council.  He belonged to the VFW Post 9392, Lowell, Wisconsin and the American Legion Post 90, Reeseville, Wisconsin.  He also belonged to the Midwest Field Trial Club. He was an avid hunter and loved spending time with his Labrador Retrievers in the field.

Survivors include his wife, Sybil; daughter Kristen Westlake (husband Don Armour); son Glenn (Karin) Westlake and their children: Andrew (Emily) Peterson and son Theo, Connor, and Claire Westlake; son David (Amy) Westlake and their children: Madison, Ben, and Zoë; and daughter Mandy Westlake.

A visitation for David will be held on Friday, March 1, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. until Noon at Trinity Lutheran Church Reeseville. A funeral service will begin at Noon.  Interment will follow at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery. Graveside Military Honors will be provided by the Lowell VFW Post 9392.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.  Hovering there

I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,

Where never lark or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. September 3, 1941