Asheville Living Treasure: Hyman Dave
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| Hyman Dave reached the age of 100 on October 27, 2010. |
Staff Reports
Hyman Dave, Asheville business icon, community servant, and service organizer, reached the age of 100 on October 27, 2010, still an active Ashevillean. On May 6, 2011, just weeks after being named one of the first four Asheville Living Treasures, he died unexpectedly at his home in Crowfields. But the legacy of his century of service will long survive him.
Hyman first came to Asheville in the summer of 1929 and moved here in 1934 after earning a degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State College (NCSC of the Greater University of North Carolina). Originally hired by his brother Joseph, who had founded Dave Steel during the Great Depression, he remained involved with the company for most of his life. The business was a major contributor to the local war effort during the Second World War, growing into a nationwide company erecting buildings and prefabricating steel for many large industries.
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Hyman’s community service and citizen activities began even before WWII. He was a volunteer with the Preventorium for Children’s Tuberculosis project during the 1930s and 1940s; during the war he led scrap metal collections for the war effort. He joined the Kiwanis Club in 1939, serving as president in 1953, and had a perfect attendance for 67 years; chaired the 4H Club’s “Calf Chain Project”; and led such fundraising projects as Pancake Breakfasts and Miniature Trains.
Hyman was a Bell Ringer for the Salvation Army’s Christmas-season fundraising drive, and as a long-time member of Asheville’s Beth Ha Tephila Synagogue he served on the Board of Governors and the House Committee and was twice elected president of the congregation. At the nexus of business and community involvement, he was chairman of the board of the Asheville Downtown City Club, which he also managed after “retiring” from Dave Steel, and served on the Industrial Commission of the Chamber of Commerce.
Never neglecting his family of three children, five grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, Hyman joined grandson Joseph Slosman in his fledgling business, National Wiper Alliance, in 1996. As of his 100th birthday he was still driving himself to work each day. Not long before his unexpected death, he noted, “I’ve had a wonderful life in 100 years, I don’t regret a day of it.”
Mr. Hyman Dave transitioned from this life on May 6, 2011. He will still be honored during the “Living Treasures” event for the contribution he made to our greater Asheville and Western North Carolina communities.
