Dave was raised in southwestern Pennsylvania where he worked in his grandfathers' small aluminum foundry during the summer and after school while in high school.  This cast his future to be involved in the foundry industry and defined the course of his education.  Dave enrolled in the metallurgy curriculum at Carnegie- Mellon University but transferred to the Co-Op program at the University of Rolla, Missouri to focus more on a foundry operations degree.  Upon graduation in 1974 he began his professional career with Abex Corporation at the Meadville, Pennsylvania. plant.  The Meadville plant produced brass and bronze bearings and gears using varied molding and melting systems and supplied the basic steel industry with high conductivity copper castings used on the blast furnaces.  Dave moved south in 1978 with a small producer of high-conductivity copper castings.  Soon after he returned to Abex Corporation (later to become ABC Rail Corp. then ABC - Naco, then Meridian Rail), this time at the Calera, Alabama facility.  The Calera plant was one of a few producers of cast steel railroad wheels.  Daves' experience at Calera was augmented by time spent at the Neptune Water Meter (later to become Schlumberger Industries) plant in Tallassee, Alabama.  Prior to refocusing DS&D in early 2000 Dave was Plant Manager for Opelika Foundry; Opelika, Alabama, making gray iron meter boxes for residential and commercial use.  Dave recently spent a year with ME Global in Tempe Arizona as the Metallurgical Manager learning about white irons, manganese steel, and chrome-molybdenum steels.