David Paul Christie

On behalf of the family I would like to express our deepest gratitude for all your love, support, and condolences on the recent passing of our beloved Dave. A huge hole will be left in all of our hearts where his gentle, kind, presence once held a special spot.

The most important thing in the world to Dave was his family, the love he had and shared with his beloved Sue and his three children Cameron, Kyle and Noelle, along with his grandchildren, Isla and Callum, his sister Kim, his in-laws Janine, Chuck, Jamie, and Lindsay, his daughter-in-law Melanie, his son-in-law Jesse, and his nieces and nephews was the focus of his life. He was the consummate gentleman, who displayed a great sense of humour, a professional who had the respect of all of his colleagues, he was selfless, generous with his time and talent, honest, and kind hearted which led to him having many endeared friends from all aspects of his life.

David Paul Christie was born on December 6,1950 in Toronto at Women’s College Hospital to Norma (née Hedges) and George Christie. Dave was an only child until his baby sister Kim arrived in March 1964. In his childhood years he loved to use his hands to build and construct things and he spent a lot of time at his grandparents Turkey Farm and Turkey Palace Restaurant located where today is the intersection of 427 and the QEW. His grandfather would send him out for the day to gather the thistles on the property for 25 cents a day, or have him shoot the gophers, but he particularly enjoyed helping the baker at the restaurant making the best turkey burgers/pies and butter tarts.

The family moved to a horse farm off of Highway 10 in Mississauga in 1963 where his father George, trained race horses and boarded Dave’s grandfather, Bert Hedges, race horses. Dave enjoyed playing outdoors, helping his dad with the horses, driving the tractor, and trucks (at one point he drove over his dads foot), but never got into horseback riding as he felt they were way too much work. The love of horses was passed on down to his daughter Noelle. As Norma had a career as a keypunch operator, Dave would return home after school from the one room school house he attended and would start the preparations for dinner to help his mom. Every winter the family would go down to Florida to attend the horse races in Fort Lauderdale and to have some enjoyable family time at the beach. During the summers Dave would accompany his dad to the racetrack, hanging out with all of his dads friends and jockeys as they played cards on the backside.

In 1967 the family moved to their home on Stavebank Road in Port Credit, where the big attraction was the swimming pool and the pool table. Essentially this was the perfect party home where Dave and all of Dave’s friends would gather over the years and hang out. This is where he met his next door neighbour Phil Van Houten, a loyal friend who never forgave Dave for moving out west as he missed having his best friend close by to spend time together.

Dave attended Streetsville High School where he met his long time friends Jim Christenson and Chris Smith, he was part of the gymnastics team, and was the Vice President of the Student Council. His talent for making acquaintances easily, brought him an endless stream of friends. Dave was very sociable and could blend without effort into any social group.

After his high school graduation in 1969 Dave was accepted to the University of Toronto at the Erindale Campus where he studied and received his BSc. Ultimately Dave wanted to be a dentist, so he applied to the Dental program but did not make the cut. He felt if he did his Masters in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, thus being a student there, he would have a better chance of being accepted into their program. It worked and in 1980 Dave graduated from Dentistry from the University of Western Ontario receiving the Prosthodontics award and the Oral Surgery award in his final year.

In 1972 Dave was introduced to Susan Patricia Smyth, the love of his life, by a mutual friend, Norah Bird. Sue and Norah had skipped their last class on a Friday afternoon and hitchhiked down to the U of T, Erindale Campus where Dave was the DJ at the Spoke and Rim Pub.They dated for the next 5 years, a lot of the time only seeing each other on the weekends as they both lived in different cities attending school until 1977 when Sue got a job at the Victoria Hospital in London Ontario as a Medical Laboratory Technologist.They got engaged on Christmas Eve of 1976 and were married on June 24,1978 in Mississauga Ontario. Dave and Sue lived in married students residence at UWO, Sue working to support them both as Dave continued on with his studies. Many long time friendships were made in London and upon graduation Dave and Sue decided that the summers were too humid and the winters were too cold and snowy, so they decided to make the move to the west coast in beautiful Victoria BC.

Dave was an associate in a Dental practice in Royal Oak which he eventually bought in 1984. Dave was passionate about dentistry and built a very successful practice, had a devoted and dedicated staff, loyal patients whom Dave treated with professionalism, kindness, and respect, sprinkled with his great sense of humour along with his skilled hands.

Dave was very active in the Victoria District Dental Society holding the position of President in 1983. Dave also volunteered his time and expertise using his exceptional talent to arbitrate disputes involving both dental professionals and/or patients, doing this for over 30 years.This was recognized by the BC Dental Association and the BC College of Dentists receiving awards for his work. In 2000 he developed an essential tremor and was no longer able to practice dentistry. This was one of the toughest days of his life when had to hang up the drill and leave the profession he had a passion and love for. He especially missed the time he would spend with his patients, catching up on their latest news, the social aspect of dentistry.

As Dave’s mom remarked, she was not worried about Dave re his latest diagnosis as he always had the capability to reinvent himself, and that he did. He noticed that a lot of the dispute resolution cases he handled were brought on by poor or ineffective communication within the dental office. Falling back on his Masters degree in Clinical Psychology, Dave felt there was a niche to be filled to facilitate workshops to help people be more effective in their communication and to have a better understanding of the different personalities within the dental office. Both Dave and Sue became accredited using the Insights model and delivered their workshop to many dental offices and small businesses, finding that it also greatly enriched both of their lives.

Dave was passionate about dentistry. He held an active role in mentoring and supporting newly practicing dentists for many years, wanting to pass on the importance of integrity and professionalism within the dental practice, the business side of dentistry and delivering the best patient care within a dental practice. He would personally meet with each of the new dentists, then coordinated and arranged a full day of meeting and visiting many different dental offices and introducing them to the specialist they would be referring their patients to within the Victoria District.These newfound friendships continued on over many years, with Dave continuing to mentor and advise whenever the call was made.

As Dave was an active member within the VDDS for 40 years, through his kindness and generosity of time, he earned the respect from all of his colleagues .He had a keen sense of the business aspect of dentistry and helped many soon to be retiring dentists transition to retiring and finding the most suitable candidate to take over and to continue on the retiring dentist’s legacy.

In Dave’s younger years, Dave enjoyed skiing and every year he would bring his family on a skiing trip to Whistler or join friends for adult skiing weekends, where many fond and fun memories were made over the years. Dave enjoyed gardening, going for his bike rides every Sunday morning with his friend Murray, participating in pilates and strength training with the girls, walking on Wednesdays with Rick, Murray, Marc, Terry and Bruce, going kayaking every year, religiously for 20 years, in the Broken group with Brian, Emily and Steve, inviting many different people to join him to share in the magic of the Broken Group Islands.

From a young age he was enthralled by electronics, becoming an audiophile and over the years acquiring the finest stereo system. He would test the speakers listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album before he would make his final decision. Cars were another passion for Dave, known for trading in his cars quite frequently. He was a proud father when his son Cam (who also shared his passion for cars) worked at the VW Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto CA, eventually being headhunted by Tesla, heading the hardware design for the 17 inch infotainment screen, eventually working for Aurora, designing the self driving car.

Dave received the reputation of being “Consumer Dave” as he always did so much research before making his final decision, whether it was on cars, TV’s, or electronics.

When the Canucks hockey team were doing well, you would find Dave cheering for his favourite team, occasionally going over to Vancouver to catch a live game. Dave and Sue loved many genres of music, and especially enjoyed seeing many of their favourite bands in live concert. They were also huge fans of their daughter Noelle and son-in-law Jesse’s band, The Promised, and whenever the opportunity arose, they were there to support and watch them play. His son Kyle was a golf fanatic and Dave would occasionally join him playing golf. One year he asked Kyle to join him to play in the local VDDS golf tournament, where Kyle won the tournament and has his name engraved on the VDDS trophy.

Dave’s family was the most important aspect of his life, he had an unconditional love for his children and went to extraordinary lengths to provide for his family, to support them in their sports, hobbies and activities and guided them through difficult times. He spent quality time with them, he was their pillar of strength, support, and joy. He illustrated the importance of affection by professing his love for his wife Sue, the love of his life.

In February 2016 he was blessed by the arrival of his darling granddaughter Isla, and in December 2017 his adorable grandson Callum. Being a grandfather brought Dave so much joy giving him the opportunity to sing goofy songs and doing silly dances to entertain his grandchildren.

In November 2015 Dave was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Dentists in San Antonio Texas, being recognized for his leadership, his model ethics and service to the dental profession and to society and in May 2016 he was inducted as a Fellow of the International College of Dentists in Jasper, Alberta, being recognized for his outstanding professional achievement, meritorious service and dedication to the continued progress of dentistry for the benefit of humankind, two very prestigious awards.

Dave and Sue loved to travel taking many cruises to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Europe, the Black Sea, the Baltic and Tahiti and traveled extensively throughout South America, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada and the USA whether on their own or traveling with good friends who shared their passion for new discoveries and having fun! They made many new friends on their travels, whom they kept in contact with over the years.

In August 2016 Dave was diagnosed with Bladder cancer, and underwent surgery. In 2019 they discovered that the cancer had metastasized to his lungs and he underwent 5 months of chemotherapy and eventually radiation which took a toll on his body. A month prior to his passing they discovered the cancer had metastasized to his brain. He felt he was too weak to undergo any more treatment. He continued working up to a week before his passing, tidying up loose ends. Dave passed away peacefully in his home, with the love of his family and close friends by his side, on the morning of Friday September 4, 2020.

Dave will be dearly missed by all the people whose lives he touched, his family, schoolmates, dental colleagues, and the many friends he met on his life’s journey. We all love you so much Dave and feel so grateful that we were a part of your amazing life.❤️❌⭕️

A special thank you to Tim and Patti Paziuk who gave so much of their time, advice, and support to Dave and his family.

In lieu of flowers please donate to the Dr. David P. Christie memorial fund which has been established at the University of Western Ontario in Dave’s memory. You can make a tax deductible donation to https://www.westernconnect.ca/donateWestern.html?memorial=yes