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In memoriam: activist Dave Wade

Aurora pro-life leader Karen Nickels offers the following memorial on activist Dave Wade, who passed away on Easter Sunday. Karen has set up a memorial fund to cover Dave’s final expenses. The amount needed for these expenses has been met, but the fund is still accepting contributions in Dave’s name that will go to the Pro-Life Action League, the organization that Dave volunteered with so ardently and that is empowering people in Aurora and across the country to be active in the pro-life movement. Please e-mail Eric for information on contributing.

Dave is to be buried at Noon on Thursday, April 16 at River Hills Memorial Park, 1650 S. River Street, Batavia (map).

Dave Wade Resquiat in PacemOn Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, our loving God took long-time Aurora pro-lifer David Wade to the fullness of eternal life. It was the end of a several-year battle with ill health. Dave spent much of his adult life aiding the unborn. He was active in the struggle against abortion almost from the beginning. In the early days of the pro-life movement, he regularly took part in actions at Chicago abortuaries with Joe Scheidler.

Stalwart defender of the unborn

Here in Aurora, Dave was a committed member of the ministry outside the former abortion clinic on West Galena for six years until it closed in 2006. He was the second Saturday of the month 10:00 a.m. to noon prayer partner, and he came even on days when he wasn’t feeling well because he had already made the commitment to be there. Dave was also very involved in the political arena and worked to put pro-life candidates into office, most recently serving as treasurer for Joan Solms’ 2008 bid for state representative. Dave’s health prevented him from being very active in the struggle at Planned Parenthood, but he did address the Aurora city council before Planned Parenthood opened in the fall of 2007. And a few months later in February 2008, Dave again spoke to the city council about the question of a special use permit for the former abortion clinic building so that it could be used as an office for a legitimate family practice physician. In his eloquent manner, Dave referred to Hannah Arendt’s phrase, “the banality of evil” andhow wickedness can become “part of the landscape.” Dave concluded that if a man can redeem himself, then perhaps a building can be redeemed, too. He applauded the new owner’s desire to insure that abortions never be committed in that location again.

A tried and true activist

Joe Scheidler characterized Dave as a “tried and true genuine activist.” I personally came to know Dave during the many Saturday mornings I spent with him on the sidewalk. He was an extremely knowledgeable man, a student of history and politics, and had a great capacity for analysis. Dave is known to many as a regular contributor of letters to the editor of the Beacon-News. Ideas and debate were of great interest to him, and in recent years, he became a willing judge of student debate contests. Moreover, he was an active member of St. Mary’s Church in Aurora, especially in music ministry to which he offered his beautiful voice. Dave Wade Resquiat in PademHe was a man of many talents and used them in building up the kingdom, but he was also a humble servant. All in all, Dave was a faithful Christian and a true example to the rest of us of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I was graced to have known him. Congressman Henry Hyde once said that when pro-lifers stand before God in judgment, they are not alone. A chorus of voices that were never heard on earth will be pleading, “Spare him because he loved us.” Those voices were certainly speaking on Dave’s behalf this Easter Sunday. —Karen Nickels

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