More detail on this person: David Rosenthal: Remembering a local icon Remembering a local icon Daily Independent, The (Ridgecrest, CA) - Monday, March 26, 2007 David Rosenthal lived a life of adventure and constant investigation, learning about anything that piqued his interest - from photography to flying jets and helicopters. Not one to sit idly and watch the world go by, he jumped into the middle of the fray and used his skills to make life better and more interesting for those around him. Dave grew up in Sacramento and joined the Army following high school. He managed to get himself accepted for flight training, and while in training, worked as the Public Information Officer for his unit. Using his PIO status, he wrangled a press pass to the Houston Space Center and photographed the landing of Apollo 11, first man on the moon, along with photographers from major magazines. A tour of duty in Vietnam in 1970 and '71 offered plenty of opportunities for Dave's camera. He flew countless missions in his helicopter and served as an official Combat Photographer. He came away from this experience with two Purple Hearts for head wounds. Once back in Sacramento, Dave joined the California National Guard and became a founding member of the 126th Medical Company Air Ambulance. With his Guard unit, Dave flew MEDEVAC rescue missions and fought California wildfires. He also became an ASE/Electronics Warfare Officer, Threat Officer, and an Aviation Safety Officer. Major Dan Anderson of the California National Guard remembers Dave as a man dedicated to service. "He was loyal to his friends and cared deeply for everyone, regardless of race or background. He had a special gift - this deep interest in people. No matter where we flew in California, he could point out places he knew, things he knew about and people he remembered," Anderson said. His Guard unit was the first to be deployed to Bosnia in 1998, where they were attached to NATO forces. Upon his return from Bosnia, Dave spearheaded a project with the Rotary Club of China Lake to collect two tons of clothing for Bosnian orphans and landmine victims.. Altogether, he spent 33 years flying for the Army National Guard, retiring in 2001. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2003. Dave and his wife, Donna, traveled to many exotic places, where he photographed space weather, solar eclipses and Halley's Comet. He offered his services to CNN as a science reporter and to Club Med, where he worked as a science entertainer in French Polynesia during Halley's Comet. Dave was also the North American Science Correspondent for Radio Netherlands from 1984 to 1988. Canada's Discovery Channel interviewed him about his journey to Uxmal, Mexico, in 1997, where he photographed the renewal of the Grand Cycle of Venus' patterns in the sky - an event which occurs only once every eight years and was of great significance to the ancient Maya. Dave was widely published as a writer and photojournalist, with features appearing in QST - the magazine of the American Radio Relay League - MENSA magazine, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Antelope Valley Press, Ventura County Star, NY AAA magazine Car & Travel Monthly, the News Review, and Bakersfield Magazine. In 2006, he won the prestigious Northern Lights Award, presented by the Canadian Tourism Commission, for excellence in photography for his photos of the aurora borealis and polar bears, which accompanied an article by Donna, "Where the Polar Bears Roam." Dave came in 1978 to work with Pierre St. Amand in Research and Development at China Lake. He was nominated for the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1995, for his work at China Lake. He retired in 2006. In 2002, Dave was elected to the Indian Wells Valley Airport District Board of Directors and served two one-years terms as its president. He was re-elected in 2006. Nancy Bass, airport manager for 20 years, found Dave a very conscientous director, always careful of the airport's finances. "He was fascinating to talk to, he'd been so many places and done so many things. And his photography was wonderful," Bass said. Former Director Linda Bozack worked with Dave for several years. She found him an able partner on the board and also expressed her fascination with his global travels. "Dave is going to be missed in so many areas. He was very concerned and caring, and his interesting sense of humor often lightened tense situations," Bozack said. In April of 2002, Dave learned that he had stage-four colon cancer with metastases to two lobes of the liver. He entered a cancer vaccine trial program with Dr. Charles Wiseman at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had good success with the program, and saw no growth of the tumors for three years. However, biliary infections became a recurring problem, at times severe. His death, while cancer-related, seems to have been from the impact of the infection rather than any actual cancer, Donna said. Dr. Wiseman called Dave "a remarkable man, uncommonly brave and decisive" about his condition. "He came to me with a prognosis of five to 10 months, insisting that we do everything we could that would help. We've had some success with the program and he got a few more years of life from it. "Being an oncologist puts me in a very privileged position, it's a completely different calling than selling TVs. People don't come to see me for frivolous reasons. I see people from all nationalities - cancer knows no boundaries. No one knows what tomorrow's treatment will bring, but I do all I can to give them help and hope with the resources at hand," Wiseman said. "If anything like this ever happens to me, I hope I have someone as deeply devoted to me as Donna was to Dave. She was with him every step of the way." In lieu of flowers, please direct donations in his memory to Wiseman Cancer Research Foundation, 201 S. Alvarado St., Suite 321, Los Angeles, CA 90057. Dave is survived by his wife, Donna McCrohan Rosenthal of Ridgecrest; mother and father, Martha and Macey Rosenthal of Sun City; and sister, Alice Fuller of Casa Grande, Ariz.
This information was last updated 04/30/2020
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