I met Dave on my first day at Ripon & York St John in Autumn of 1985.
I was studying Occupational Therapy, and the O.T. dept had little interaction with other depts, and could be quite inward looking.
Spending time with Dave, ( and the usual crowd of people that would come to his room for coffee,) introduced me to world I knew little of, and most of the learning came through Daves character.
He was warm, welcoming, confident; but not a show off. He was a loyal friend, had a huge range of influences, was funny and sceptical, mature but could also be silly and great fun.
From his enthusiasm for subjects, I learned about Film appreciation, learned about the books he loved, and both the music he loved to listen to and the music he loved to play.
In effect he was a natural teacher, not over pushy, but informed and capable of both teaching and learning from others.
He was best man at my wedding, Rachel, my ex wife, is also aware of Daves’s death, and sends her best wishes to Zoe and the family.
I was a guest at his wedding to Zoe, and it was clear that they were soul mates, and they  had ‘found what they were looking for’
Our meetings over the later years were not frequent ( as our work took us to different places), but on the few occasions we managed to meet up, (often along with other old college friends Sam Tarff, Keith Ollerton and Andrew Rhodes), they were times of wonderful joy, reminiscence and riotous laughter.

The last time we met he was planning holidays away, and taking life easier… travelling Europe a bit, and taking time away with Zoe.
I hope they managed some of that. They deserved it.

Basically he was a lovely, lovely guy, and someone who had a gentle but significant positive impact on my life.
One of the those people who you might not see often, but thought about regularly, looking forward to that next meeting, and a call above the noise of a crowded bar

“Rob!”

“Dave!”
and the awkward man hug, and
“How are you!”
“How are you?”
“Good, yes good”
“ We are just waiting for the others,  then we will go somewhere with better beer”
And it would be 1985 again for a little bit
I will miss him, as a brother misses a brother.
Dave who was both my little brother, and my bigger brother as well.

I miss him.