David Reed

DAVID “DAVE” REED

3/10/1942 – 11/2/2025

David Charles Reed, “Dave”, was born on March 10, 1942, to Charles and Bertha Reed. He had 2 older sisters, Shirlee and Charlene. A third sister, Katherine “Katie”, was born a couple of years after Dave. Dave grew up in Platteville, CO helping his family on their farm, where they raised potatoes. He always laughed about how much his sisters picked on him! He was active in 4-H with the chickens he raised and also won a blue ribbon for his chocolate pie. Dave was a star athlete in Platteville High School, where he played football, basketball, and ran track. He also loved music, playing drums and singing in the church choir. Following his graduation in 1960, he attended CSU Pueblo with a football scholarship and assisted the team in winning a division II championship. During this time, he received a notice that “Uncle Sam wants you”. He joined the Navy and chose aviation as his specialty. After training he served a mission in the Vietnam conflict, flying the A4-Skyhawk off the carrier, USS Oriskany. Dave had over 200 landings on that carrier! Following his tour, he became a flight instructor in Meridian, Mississippi.

Dave decided not to reenlist and moved back to Platteville. At this time his parents were closing Reed’s Roadside Market, which they had run for several years, and Dave’s sister, Shirlee, was renovating the building into the Double Tree Restaurant. Dave helped in the restaurant and even took over management for a while. This restaurant experience paid off many years later, when Dave and Sue purchased and ran the Parker House Restaurant in Parker, Colorado.

Dave moved to Aurora, Colorado in 1972, and a few years later met Susan “Sue” Crosby at the townhome complex where they both lived. They married in 1980, built and moved into a home in the then very rural town of Parker. Their daughter, Phaidra Jeanne, was born in 1981, joining Gordon “Scott” and Anne Catherine, Sue’s 2 children from her previous marriage.

Dave and Sue raised their family in Parker, also loving the Colorado mountains, where they hiked, tent-camped and skied frequently, continuing into their ‘80’s. They loved the outdoors and nature, always having gardens and numerous bird feeders around the house. Kauai, HI became a favorite vacation destination, where they also loved to hike.

Dave’s career was in business and finance. He worked for several different companies, most notably Quest. As mentioned above, in the 1990’s he and Sue owned and managed the Parker House Restaurant. In later years he was a security guard at the Trinity Bldg. in Denver.

Homemade ice cream was a passion of Dave’s. When he was young, his dad acquired a 3-gallon ice cream freezer. Dave loved to tell the story that since the freezer was too hard to crank, his dad had to find a way to churn the ice cream. He first hooked it up to the tractor, but that churned the ice cream too fast, and it turned to butter! Eventually he found that the potato sorter worked just fine, so in the summer they made ice cream, and in the winter sorted potatoes. Dave’s love of ice cream was born from their weekly batch! He continued to make ice cream every summer with his own freezer, sharing the delicious product with family and friends. His signature variety was “Citrus Delight”, a lemon ice cream loved by all.

Dave also loved his red Fiat sports convertible – actually owning 4 different ones throughout the years. He was well known around Parker, seen driving that cute car!

Dave passed away on November 2, 2025. He will always be remembered for his humor, generosity and warm heart. He loved to sing and was a member of Parker United Methodist Church choir for over 40 years. He was a loving Dad, husband and friend. He is greatly missed but surely is singing in the heavenly choir.