TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: David John Willmann (1956-2017)

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: David John Willmann (1956-2017)

I have always loved this time of year. The two holidays of the year when the chaos, stress, and non-stop running, slows down to a crawl and everyone can just breathe for a moment. It is a time when we start pushing aside the divisiveness, anger, and self-centeredness and make the time for family, friends, and neighbors. When we become much more in tune with the needs of others that, though ever present, become more pronounced and we have an ear and a heart open enough to step-up and help make things around us a bit better. It is a time when we all feel better about ourselves and about the world around us and just feel the quiet joy of being a part of something bigger. What a shame that it does not last throughout the year, all the needs stay, we are the ones that move. I wondered how many people I have known over my life that were just simply a joy to be around. It is a tall order to fill and one that I surely know I don’t live up to no matter how hard I try. As I worked my way back over the years, I did find a few, one of them was someone I had known all my life and that most of you, who grew up here remember as well. David John Willmann. Not only did we know David we all knew his mother and father as well. 

David John Willmann was born in Port Lavaca, Texas on September 3, 1956, to Rudolph R. Willmann and Marie E. Duelberg Willmann. David had a sister Melanie Voigt and husband Friedrich of Germany and a brother Rudolph Robert Willmann Jr. of San Antonio. David was the baby of the family. 

David was one of those rare people who could just look at you and warm your heart. He always had a smile on his face that could light up Times Square on New Years Eve! It did not matter what kind of a mood you were in; David was contagious and he could put a smile on your face no matter what. His smile never concealed any underlying motive or coyness; it was a smile that was unmistakably pure joy from just being alive. I don’t think there is anything much better than that.   

David got his smile handed down from his dad and mom. If you grew up in Port Lavaca and attended public school, you knew David’s dad. He was the happy little man in the dark suit with a slight bit of a German accent that called out page numbers as you set your fingers on your Flutophone ready to play in your fourth-grade class orchestra. Dr. Willmann was always so upbeat and had a smile that was every bit as big as David’s. Who could ever forget being in his music class. Little did we know how special that truly was. 

Dr. Willmann’s life was a fascinating one. He was a Veteran of the United States Army Air Forces for 4 years. He served as Director of Ground Training at Fort Worth Army Air Field and as a Liaison officer between AAF Headquarters in Washington and colleges and universities in six Southeastern states. He worked in accounting, grocery clerking, banking, farming, and led a jazz band. He taught at Texas Lutheran College and in the University System of the State of New York, Music Department Administration in Western Kentucky University, Kansas State University, and East Carolina University. When he moved to Port Lavaca he went back to farming, and he became Music Supervisor in Calhoun County Independent School District. He also became choir director of Salem Lutheran Church. Now all these years later we find out we were given Flutophone lessons by a gifted and highly esteemed musician of whom other students of music would have likely had to pay a pretty price for those same lessons! Kinda makes me wish I would have practiced a bit more. 

David loved music as well. I remember him attending concerts that were performed by the Junior High and High School students in both band and choir, with his parents. It was easy to see that music was something familiar and that it spoke to him and moved him. Music was apart of his everyday life, and it was something that he had in common with his father and his mother. 

Marie Willmann was employed in Riverside Church, Columbia University and Community Services Society in New York City; the Investigations Division of Civil Service, Atlanta, Georgia. What she was known best for in Port Lavaca and in Calhoun County was her exceptional talent at playing the piano and the organ. She had been the Organist in churches Greenville, North Carolina, Fort Worth, Texas, Manhattan, Kansas, and here in Port Lavaca at Salem Lutheran. Mrs. Willmann was also one of the best-known piano teachers and as such, for many kids in Port Lavaca they had both Dr. and Mrs. Willmann as music teachers. Her students loved her. There again on her face, you could see that same big smile with eyes that danced like fingers across a keyboard releasing pure joy. This was David’s world. 

David always was ready and willing to help anyone. He loved working in the flower beds and gardening and was gifted in his ability to make flowers and plants thrive. He enjoyed traveling and seeing and visiting new places. Like his parents he was active in his church serving as an acolyte and an usher. 

Like many of the kids my age, I remember attending school with David although there was not a lot of opportunities to get to know him because he was in special classes. As most of us know, David was born with a condition called Down Syndrome. It is a genetic with the existence of an extra chromosome 21. The condition causes various physical and mental conditions that are still not fully understood. Researchers are still working to better understand it. When we were kids, back in the 1960’s and 70’s, people with Down Syndrome were not expected to learn or understand the world around them. They attended classes together with other kids who had all diverse kinds of disabilities. The classes had tailored curriculum that included special ways to allow the student to learn and understand how to manage their disability out in the world. Unfortunately, it didn’t allow for much needed interaction with their peers. It wasn’t until I entered my freshman year that we were given the opportunity to interact and get to know David and his friends. It was through a new organization called TARs. We would have meetings and plan things to do with our new friends. We would go to movies, on picnics, fishing, and all sorts of activities together. The point to the whole organization was to become friends and bridge the gap between us. It was here that I got to know David, Andrew Montier, Chuck Nichols, who I had known and played with since I was little, and the rest of the group. It was a welcomed friendship, always fun, full of jokes and smiles of genuine joy.

David’s parents were involved within the community. Mrs. Willmann helped in 4-H when her children were growing up, and active in local politics. Dr. Willmann was Director in Farmer’s Gin Coop. and Commissioner for Drainage District 11. Together they founded the Calhoun County Council for Retarded Citizens. They helped to establish the first Center for educating the Trainable Retarded of Calhoun County. Mrs. Willmann was the President and member of the Board of Directors of Calhoun Council for Retarded Citizens. Dr. Willmann also served on the Board of Directors of Texas Association for Retarded Citizens. Through the center people with with intellectual and developmental disabilities were able to get extra education and special services that help them through the rest of their lives. 

David learned how to read and write to some extent. He was very active in Special Olympics, and he pushed hard and always gave his best in whatever sport he entered. I remember him yelling and cheering for our Calhoun Sandcrabs every home game. It wasn’t hard to tell he was a huge Sandcrab football fan. He took up bowling and bowled with the Victoria Shining Stars team. He worked in the Calhoun Work Activity Center and worked on the farm. David passed away August 24, 2017, surrounded by family, two years after his mother. 

David lived his life in a time when the understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities came from the darkness into the light. Things that were assumed or misunderstood about people with learning and other disabilities were marked as retarded in society who labeled them backwards or unteachable. The label “retarded” has been done away with nowadays, and thankfully so. It took that stigma away and opened a door to all the possibilities and opportunities that are waiting for them. Arc Organization has replaced the Association of Retarded Citizens, and with its arrival came advocacy for the rights and support for the full inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the community. Help with over 600 chapters to help with education, residential support, employment and financial planning. 

Through the passing of the ADA signed off by President George H. W. Bush, and IDEA signed off by President George W. Bush, with the “No child left behind” commitment, Arc has opened the avenues needed to help these fellow Americans to live the best life they can. Avenues that David did not have but lived to see the positive changes. It isn’t difficult to see the changes today. The Special Services in our schools meet the needs of and progressively help students learn and move forward. Students with all types of learning and developmental disabilities. They work hard to provide plenty of activities and opportunities to enjoy their day and express themselves and use their talents and abilities through organizations like Autism Awareness, Special Olympics, and Arc. They have even advocated for Special Olympics to be accepted as any other sport in school so they can earn a Jacket and a letter for their hard work like the rest of their classmates. Most of all, today if a student is in Special Services they have opportunities to make friends and are well known and well thought of among the student body.     

David and his parents were proactive in improving life and the future for him, they also helped do the same for all those with IDD to have the same, they helped pave the way for all the generations that have followed. How freeing it must be that even through the struggles of life there is a place of just pure joy. I believe that may be the best lesson that they teach us. How to take the time to slow down, just enjoy the moment and the beauty all around us. David is buried with his parents at Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery in Calhoun County. 

Victoria Advocate 

The Shifting Sands of Calhoun County