David Link joined the U. S. Navy in 1944 and was subsequently sent to Purdue University and later to the University of Virginia in the Navy’s V-12 program. He returned to Fort Wayne where he joined the News-Sentinel as a copy editor and reporter, working under Bud Manth, father of former principal Jenny Manth, until 1951 when he was called to serve in the Korean War.
David returned to the News-Sentinel for one year and then moved to the Milwaukee Journal as a real estate writer before he became a home builder and later went into the mortgage banking business. In 1970 David became senior editor of Professional Builder Magazine, a Chicago based national publication that focused on housing and light construction and was subsequently named editor and then editorial director and associate publisher. In 1986, he became vice president of Cahners Publishing Company that published 40 some magazines centered on the trades. He retired in 1991 to Arizona where he became the first president of the Santa Cruz Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
David was president and board chairman of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, a member of several home builders associations and press associations and a member of the National Association of Home Builders Housing Hall of Fame. He received numerous awards for his editorials and in 1999 was named one of the 100 most influential persons in the housing industry in the 20th century, given to him by a competitor Builder Magazine. He was described by homebuilders as a leading voice in the industry.
Mr. Link wrote the book Residential Design and co-authored another book on interior design. He had the honor of face-to face conversations with Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Link is survived by his wife Ruth Gerding, also a 1944 SSHS graduate, and a son and daughter.
Nomination by Eli Adams, a co-worker whose wife is Marilyn Moore, 1947 SSHS graduate