DAVID A SUNDE – CLASS OF 1960
DAVID A SUNDE – CLASS OF 1960
Sunde, David Andrew of Boulder, Colorado
1938 – 2023
David Andrew Sunde was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 21, 1938, to Oscar and Rose Sunde. He was the middle child, with older sister, Beverly, and younger brother, Paul. Sensitive and bright, he was a good student. He played the saxophone in the school band. He was tall and athletic, earning the nickname Bones on his high school basketball team. He also played ice hockey. He graduated from Lee High School in 1956 with honors and a basketball scholarship to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
David was intending to study chemistry at university, but he discovered a love of history, and changed his major. One evening, he and his buddies were going out and he did not have a date. His friends pulled up in front of a nursing home where a group of cute girls were hanging out after their shift there, and issued a dare: who wants to go on a date with David? A fun-loving girl named Sandra Postema and the rest is history. David and Sandra married in New Era, Michigan, on September 5, 1959. They honeymooned on Mackinac Island, and moved into an apartment in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They graduated with their bachelors degrees in 1960.
The Sundes moved to Dallas, Texas. David attended Dallas Theological Seminary. Their first daughter, Judy, was born in 1963. David graduated with his Masters of Divinity in 1964. After graduation, they moved to California, where David was a pastoral intern at Trinity Bible Church. They had daughters Lisa in 1964 and Mary in 1966.
In 1966, David joined the staff of Cru, and became the campus director at Northwestern University. When Mary was only two weeks old, the family moved to Evanston, Illinois. David eventually became Regional Director for the Midwest and spent a lot of time traveling to campuses in the region.
In 1972, David accepted a position as National Field Director at Cru headquarters, Arrowhead Springs, in San Bernardino, California. The family moved to Riverside.
In 1978, he became a faculty member at International School of Theology at Arrowhead Springs. He was a respected teacher and counselor at IST until 1984. David and Sande traveled extensively, speaking and teaching with Family Life Ministries.
In 1984, David and Sande moved to San Diego to start Marketplace Ministries, an organization helping working people connect to spiritual encouragement and teaching during the week. He led Marketplace Ministries for nine years before re-joining the Cru Campus Ministry to launch an initiative to college juniors and seniors called Graduating to the Marketplace. That entailed a move to Colorado in 1993 to join a new team in Boulder. After five years, David and Sande moved into International Ministry, serving primarily in the Middle East, Francophone Africa, and Latin America with Family Life.
Around 2014, Sande began to struggle with what he later learned with Alzheimer’s disease. David was her caregiver until she moved into Memory Care in 2017. David lost his beloved life partner in January 2021. He continued to live in their home in Louisville until it burned down in the Marshall Fire in December 2021.
He moved to Sunrise Senior Living in Broomfield in March 2022. In May 2022, David traveled to Norway, where Oscar’s parents were born, with his children.