David

Apprentice Craftsman

David grew up in Grand Rapids, MI. He attended Michigan Technological University and graduated in 2013 with a degree in Computer Engineering. After college, he moved to Kansas City to work for Garmin. For 2 years, he worked as a software engineer for their fitness devices group. His primary focus was on their triathlete GPS watches. While he lived in Kansas City, he was a member of the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild where he honed in on fundamental woodworking skills. David left Kansas City in the fall of 2015 and moved to Port Townsend, WA to attend the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building. He graduated in 2016 and was awarded the Prothero Internship. During the internship, he worked on a 36’ traditional motorsailer called ‘Seabeast’ that was in it’s third year of construction. He worked one on one with his instructor, and together they launched Seabeast in April of 2017. He then piled all his tools and belongings into a U-Haul and drove across the country in just 3 days to come work for Van Dam!

David is an avid downhill and cross-country skier- skate and classic. He enjoys backpacking, and has even done a solo trip for 2 weeks in Olympic National Park. He aspires to someday hike the PCT and AT. He has completed 3 full marathons and countless shorter races. He also likes to mountain bike, sail, and fish. Most of all , he loves to be outside. He is interested in things about the environment- plant names, animal names, what’s edible, etc.

• Started at Van Dam: 2017
• Born in: Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Favorite Projects to work on: Boat building presents an endless series of problems to solve. I like that. I came to Van Dam because of their dedication to doing things the best they possibly could each time. I don’t believe in a dream job, I believe in doing something I feel is worthwhile each day.