With a mix of tears and laughter (mostly laughter, because that's how he would have wanted it), we bid farewell to the one and only David “Dave” Leonard Krenk, who at the age of 63, decided to give the afterlife a try, leaving behind a trail of sarcasm and dad jokes that will echo through eternity.
Born on Feb. 21, 1961, to JoAnne (Prasek) and Leonard Krenk, Dave spent his formative years in Crete, where he learned to strum the strings of life with his guitar in hand, entertaining crowds as a member of the band Open Road. Dave graduated from Crete High School in 1979 and from there, his academic journey may have taken a few detours, including a brief stint at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he humorously admitted to "flunking out" after just one semester. He enlisted in the Army National Guard and joined the 43rd Army Band as a trombone player. Shortly after this, he earned his degree in electrical engineering from Southeast Community College.
Dave’s career path took him from Crete Lumber to Duncan Aviation to the laboratories of Li-Cor Biosciences (where his daughters never quite understood what he did there). He even dabbled in both residential and commercial real estate because he figured it may be the only job where his dry humor and quick wit could be considered a selling point. However, he eventually found a new niche at HOA Solutions where it was never a dull moment when he was organizing their inventory and building electrical panels.
Outside of the office, Dave was a man of many passions. He earned his private pilot’s license at the age of 17 and enjoyed soaring through the skies as a pilot with the Crete Skydiving Club (because why jump out of a perfectly good airplane when you can fly it? Just kidding, as no stranger to danger, he definitely did both). He also had a knack for photography, capturing moments that would otherwise be lost to time. Particularly, he enjoyed photographing American flags, eagles, landscapes and his grandchildren.
A master craftsman in his own right, Dave found solace in the art of woodworking, creating pieces that would make even the most seasoned artisans green with envy. He had the ability to create designs in his head and somehow “just make it.” He was incredibly detailed in his shop work and never found a shop that he could not bring back to life with his ability to organize and arrange (ask his son-in-law how many times it took for him to finally get his organized).
Insead of McGuyver, he was nicknamed MacDaver because he could (and would) fix or build anything before you even knew it was needed. We’d like to think that heaven’s just one big workshop now with Dave at the helm, organizing celestial toolboxes and labeling everything in sight (because everyone who knew him KNOWS everything he owned was labeled with his name in big black capital letters).
