11/13/2023
David Lee Williamson, known to many as “Mr. Wonderful”, age 71 of Grand Rapids, passed away on Monday, November 6, 2023 at his home. He was born on August 14, 1952 in East Grand Rapids, the son of Robert and June (Vandersloot) Williamson.
He spent the majority of his adult life working as a smoker at Thorn Apple Valley, Inc. and advanced later in his career to quality control specialist but he always knew the value of working to live instead of living to work. He loved spending time with his children and grandchildren, family pets, playing cards and backgammon with friends, watching sports with family and enjoying an occasional round of golf. He welcomed all into his life and his home and will be missed by those who knew him. Always friendly with a twinkle in his eye and a smile and ready for mischief, he was the first to volunteer to lend a hand where needed. He always responded to the question, “how are you?" with the answer “wonderful” because he possessed a pure unadulterated love of life and positive outlook, thus earning the nickname.
He spent his life in Grand Rapids, and is survived by his wife Alice Denhof-Williamson, daughter Michelle L. Williamson and her partner Barbra Donker, son David M. Williamson; step-daughter and her husband, Catherine and Christian Rische, and his five grandchildren, Nikelas, Madison, and Isabela Williamson and Jackson and Alexandra Rische.
A celebration of Dave’s life will take place on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at Our Tavern, 1219 Hamilton Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Those wishing to offer expressions of sympathy are encouraged to make a memorial contribution to the Humane Society of West Michigan, https://www.hswestmi.org/give.html (https://www.hswestmi.org/give.html) or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospit
al at
https://www.stjude.org/donate (https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html?frequency_selected=1&sc_dcm=58700008007864156&sc_cid=kwp&sc_cat=nb&ds_rl=1290693&ds_rl=1285465&gclsrc=aw.ds)
Learn more about how you can support St. Jude at https://stjude.org
