David Ray Tyler's Obituary
David was born May 9, 1947, in Vancouver, BC to mother Evelyn Doris Thorsen (neé Witcherley) and Father Louis Sam Thorsen Jr., an American in the US Navy. He was joined by his sister Valerie when he was 2 ½ years old and their early life was happily spent along with maternal grandparents James and Thelma Witcherley in their Point Grey home across from the UBC Endowment Lands. These quiet woods gave David his love of the outdoors. He started school at the little red brick school on the hill, Queen Mary Elementary School. But these happy years ended when his parents divorced and his father returned to Pensacola, Florida. Things were difficult as his mom worked to support them, and Valerie moved in with their grandparents. When his mother remarried Joseph Aloysius Tyler, a local drummer in a Dixieland band who wanted a family, David and Valerie were legally adopted and their surname was changed to Tyler. This should have stabilized life for them, but they never lived anywhere longer than four years, moving around Vancouver, out to Surrey and back, passing through half a dozen schools before graduating from Eric Hamber Secondary School in 1965. After moving to attend Toronto’s College of Chiropractors, he soon found his new freedom and studying was not working for him. He found his place in the Toronto Police Service and after returning to Vancouver, joined the Vancouver Police Department, and he retired after 30 years of service. His last position being in the Identification Unit.
David was married young and had two daughters, but this marriage did not last. When he found his life’s soul mate in Daryl, they married in March 1973 and he was comforted by the close relationship he shared with Daryl, her sons Roddy and Shaun, and grandchildren who gave him all the love, comfort and respect he could wish for. David and Daryl enjoyed almost 50 years together skiing, camping out, building, and beautifying their Agassiz home and garden, adored pets, and travelling to Arizona for many years until Daryl’s sudden death in 2023. David was devastated, as was all the family.
After a lonely trip to Arizona in 2024, David chose to reunite with his sister Valerie for “one last trip” in his fifth wheel to show her the places he and Daryl explored over the years. Together they compared their childhood memories and grew close again appreciating how much their habits, lifestyle, humour, and grief were alike. David shared his last moments of life with his sister at his side, as he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in Tucson, Arizona on February 3, 2025.
Together again with his beloved Daryl, RIP David.
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