David Allan Musselwhite

Hi, Thanks for dropping by!

I’m David, a Christian who values faith, integrity, and friendship. Formerly an IT Director. These days I’m focused on finding ways to stay engaged. Please click through the following images to read all about my life. Feel free to get in touch (especially if you are a pretty single Christian lady).

My statement of faith

I was a born in the Americus and Sumter County hospital.

This is the house in Leesburg where I grew up. I remember when my Dad built the brick walkway that is still there over 70 years later.

My grandmother for much of her life worked for the Forestry service as a fire tower lady. She watched for smoke and located it by triangulation with other towers. For many of the summers that I spent in Georgia, I fondly remember playing on (and off) the tower steps.

When I was about 10 years old (or so) - I begged and begged for a Schwynn Apple Crate bike. It was candy apple red, with a banana seat, high handle-bars and disk brakes. I go it for Christmas!

Shortly after moving to Florida my family went to Silver Springs. This photo is all of my family on a Glass Bottom Boat.

Here I am posing next to a palm tree in front of our house in Lake Belvedere Estates just before leaving for a Boy Scout campout. I was initially part of troop 149 until I moved to troop 138 to be with my cousin Johnny until he died from leukemia. I then re-joined 149.Notice the buzzcut - my Dad's favorite (and only haircut style).

One of my elementary school photos. Maybe second or third grade.

One day in Lake Belevedere, there was a travelling photographer going through the neighborhood with a pony offering to take photos. My mom throught this would be cute.

Here I am getting in our family Chrysler 300 on my way to Lake Worth Racquet Club.I took up tennis after my first youth football game where I was knocked un-conscious when I tackled a much larger boy. I think the other guy tripped over me.At any rate that was the end of my football career and on to tennis!

To participate in many of the south Florida tennis tournaments I had to become a member of the USLTA.At many of the tournaments there was an up and coming young girl named Chrissy Everett.

The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach hosted a youth & young adult round-robin tennis tournament - I showed up everyday and lost every match. Because I was the only kid to show up everyday - I was awarded the Good Sportsmanship award. This photo was published in the Palm Beach Daily News aka the "Shinny sheet".

At the Lake Worth Racquet & Swim Club I completed becoming a junior life guard.

I grew up Southern Baptist and attended First Baptist Church from childhood until I left West Palm.

Across Flagler Avenue and on the edge of the intracoastal waterway (between West Palm and Palm Beach - First Baptist built an outdoor worship area named the Chapel by the Lake.I was baptized at the Chapel by the Lake in the summer of 1970.

In the mid 1970's many hippies became Jesus Freaks, I joined this movement as a Jesus Person. We met at an old chapel building on the local airport property.We held Jesus rally's each Saturday night and then went witnessing at a local adult theater. During the days we frequently walked along the beaches handing out "Red" stickers.

In high school at Twin Lakes, I led the Christian Fellowship Club that was affiliated with Campus Crusade for Christ. During the summer of 1972 I attended Explo 72 in Dallas, Texas where we were drilled in sharing the gospel using the Four Spiritual Laws

This is the entryway to Twin Lakes High School. In the middle of the walkway is a flagpole. Each year in high school the Fellowship club met every morning around the pole and held a prayer meeting.

In 1974, a well-known Bible teacher, Major Ian Thomas spoke during a week of meetings at First Baptist Church. As part of the youth group that was putting together a newsletter named Selah. I was tasked with writing an article on the meaning of Selah. I nervously asked Major Thomas for a quote which culminated in being asked to visit him at his home in England (Capernway Hall).

I graduated from Twin Lakes High School in 1975. Here I am sitting at home while my mom took my pic in my cap and gown.Because I left school a week before the rules allowed (to travel to Europe - the principal Herbert Bridwell directed all of my teachers to fail me for the second semester of my junior year.In order to graduate with my class I had to take a full load of classes and several night school classes.

For my 18th birthday, my entire family spent a week-end at the Disney Contemporary Resort. While the magic kingdom was entertaining, the highlight was crusing through the lakes in the small boats. My brothers and I raced each other and tried to sink each other by making fish tales. This didn’t last long as the Disney “police” pulled us out of the boats and banished us from the kingdom.

Major Thomas invited me to attend the Fall Bible school at Ravencrest Chalet in Estes Park, CO. This is a beautiful location at the gateway to the Rocky Mountains National Park. Here I was introduced to an in-depth study of Christ in You Your Hope of Glory.One week-end a fellow student from Canada and I went on a drive to Denver. On the way back we got lost and found a route through the mountains that led us to Central City. In the wee hours of the night - it seemed like we went back in time. Reality was that the movie The Dutchess & Dirtwater Fox was starting being filmed there.

Central City, Co

After graduating from Twin Lakes High, I travelled with Major Thomas throughout the US. This image depicts the locations where he held Bible weeks. These weeks always started on Sunday with nightly services. Interestingly, Major never did an alter call until the last night because he wanted people to fully understand what they were doing. On Thursday nights he did a slide show about the origin and people of Torchbearers.

One of my primary responsibilities while travelling with Major Thomas was typing all of his letters. He would dictate dozens of letters each day and I would transcribe them using this "portable" manual Olivetti typewriter. I remember being overjoyed when I could use an electric .

I took flying lessons at Tilford Flying out of Palm Beach International Airport. I completed my first solo flight at the Lantana airport. My first cross-country flight was to Fort Myers.After practicing stalls at the practice area (near the very tall TV towers) I flew back to PBIA. When the tower asked if I could land before a "heavy" on the 9L runway - I said sure. I was very lucky to survive as it passed me just as I touched down on 9R. This got me a reprimand from the General Aviation District office.

While I was a student at Palm Beach Atlantic College - I was the president to the business club called Phi Beta Lambda.One of the club activities was regional competitions. In 1979, I placed first in Economics for all of the south Florida District.

At PBA, I took a scuba diving class and became NAUI certified by Norine Rouse who later went on to form the Scuba Club of the Palm Beaches. For a few years I went diving a couple times each week.

After learning to fly my next adventure was skydiving. In a small town west of West Palm there was a dive school that only did free-fall jumps first time, every time.I was so nervous, sweat was pooling in my palms and I remember thinking as I lunged from the plane's cabin to grab the wing strut that I was going to slip off the strut and that would be the end of it.

In college I became interested in how the stock market worked. My parents gave me $200 to invest and I went to a Dean Witter brokerage and purchased stock in Sambos restaurant. I think I chose this because I spent a lot of time in Sambos. As hoped the stock went up quite a bit and even split. However, I held on to it too long and the company went bankrupt.

Somewhere in my Dad’s past, someone told him to learn about running a business he should start with a gas station. This led him to buy a full serve Texaco station on Park Ave. in Lake Park. This was right before self-serve became popular. In addition to my Mom doing the books, my brother and I pumping gas, checking oil and washing windows. Dad hired a crusty (and brilliant) mechanic named Jack).

My Dad always wanted to own his own business. After high school he found a tool & die supply company for sale. It was named Quad, Inc but he renamed it to Abrasives & Tools (A&T). My brother and I were tasked with taking the initial inventory during which we started on end-mills and asked each other what are these things.

After taking numerous manual stock counts at A&T - I knew there had to be a better way - using a personal computer. My first PC was a Commodore 64 that all my family pitched in to buy for me.

My best friend John's dad bought him a 33' Choi Lee sailboat that we lived on and took out into the Atlantic off Palm Beach for several years.When it was very hot and humid, we would throw a rope over the back and dive in, catch it and as we called it - troll for sharks.

In the mid-1980's I had the bad habit of speeding (alot). In addition to having to pay many tickets - I had my driver's license suspended a few times. However, this did not stop me from driving and of course I continued to get pulled over. This resulted in me being placed on probation which (stupidly) I violated. One day, I received a postcard from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office saying they had a warrant for my arrest. This freaked me out and I quit driving and started to walk or ride my bike everywhere. Finally, I hired a lawyer who go the warrant recalled (no jail) and I was able to complete my probation.

I met Laureen O'Brien at First Baptist Church - she sang a solo during a morning service. When I first saw her I was smitten - I thought she was very cute and I loved the way she sang. Oh, yeah she was also a great kisser!We dated for several years until she moved back to Pittsburgh where she became ill and soon died.

Here I am at the video controls at First Baptist Church.

For several years, I worked for a consulting division of the largest local CPA firm named The Resource Development Group. One of our projects was to put together a Municipal mini-bond for the Town of Juno Beach.

in 1992, one of the partners in the consulting company asked me to judge a science fair at a private school in North Palm Beach.

I moved from West Palm Beach to Fort Myers to work with my brother at a small well drilling company named Southwest Water Wells.

When I moved from West Palm, I transferred my church membership to McGregor Baptist Church. I was part of the singles ministry & sunday school. Each Saturday night I updated a class prayer list and printed around 50 copies at Kinko's on US 41.

While my brother Bill managed Southwest Water Wells, I operated a small hydraulic supplies company named Ozone Industries. We sold Gates Products from a small warehouse on Metro Parkway.

After a year or so, Southwest Water Wells was absorbed into a very large deep injection well driller (also) in Fort Myers named Youngquist Brothers (YBI).

At YBI, I was responsible for all information technology services for a group of companies including construction, manufacturing, retail and hospitality businesses.My responsibilities included end-user support, AIX system administration, TCP/IP network administration, support for cost accounting business systems and project management utilizing Primavera Project Planner (PPP).I also created a barcode based inventory management system and converted the retail businesses from a manual inventory system reducing the time to inventory from over 3 days to under 6 hours per location.

The experience I gained at Youngquist Brothers and my friend Bill Neron (whom I had met at the Resource Development Group) helped me land the IT job with the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners (in Pensacola) as a Unix systems administrator.

In Pensacola, I lived in the Ashley Club Apartments on Scenic Hwy.

I bought a used Maxima from Sanda Sansing Nissan to replace the "Big Red" pickup truck I was given by Youngquist Brothers. Ultimately, I could not keep up the payments and it was repossed.

I was selected to participate in a year long community leadership program sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce.

As part of the LEAP program, each participant was required to take a Team Dynamic profile. My profile showed I was a Creator/Refiner with a focus on future possibilities and analytics. Somewhat like my dad was fond of saying "The problem with us meta-physicians is our inability to tangibilitate (do anything at all)"

In 2002 I also participated in Junior Achievement in several of the Escambia County elementary schools.

For several years, I participated in quite a few activities including 5 marathons, a bunch of sprint triathlons on Santa Rosa Island (Pensacola Beach) and an XTerra (off-road tri) in the foothills of Arkansas.

Bill Neron's wife introduced me to a local ballet school where I danced in the Nutcracker in the lead role in the party scene and later she persuaded me to take a jazz dance class. In our recital we danced to the Blues Brother's Funcky Nassau.

In 2009, I received an invitation from Mrs "T" (Major Thomas' wife) to attend a "Mules" Reunion Weekend.When I traveled with the Major I was not called a Mule - but that is an apt title for what I did, tote luggage, sell books, tape record messages, etc.There were 19 Mules at the reunion.

In 2010 I spearheaded the northwest Florida effort to win a Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP) grant for a county-wide fiber-optic network. This effort consisted of Escambia County, City of Pensacola, University of West Florida, Pensacola State College, Chamber of Commerce and the LambaRail project. After months of review we were recommended by the Dept of Commerce for award but did not get one due to a federal funding recission.

I got home one afternoon and waiting on the stairs to my apartment was a very small kitten that followed me into my apartment. She was so sweet I just had to adopt her and named her Pepper. We stayed together for many, many years.

In 2012, several IT staff (including me) joined a Crossfit "box" This picture was taken after completing a Tabata workout.

After I left Escambia County and was promoting a local broadband project, I was contacted by Peter Nowak about a building he was considering buying - This ultimately became a coworking business named Socialdesk which I managed for several years.

At Socialdesk, I started working with Kelly, Jim and Patrick on building up the Pensacola Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. We began with holding several Startup Week-end events and starting a twice-a-month 1 Million Cups where we hosted a couple of entrepreneurs giving presentations on their efforts.

When I worked at Socialdesk I rented a little house from Pete. This is without question the worst place I have ever lived. From the rotten floors to the leaking ceiling and massive overgrowth. I ended up sleeping on a couch at Socialdesk most of the time.

I rented a car and took a trip to Atlanta and into the Blue Ridge mountains around 2018. Here is a photo the the monument on Stone Mountain.

I rode my bike to and from Socialdesk for a few years and after I saved some money I purchased a "pretty" red Vespa scooter. I left it at Socialdesk when I moved to Fort Myers. The last I knew is that Peter is enjoying it at his Pensacola Beach house. I kinda miss it.

In late 2024 just prior to leaving Fort Myers - I purchased a Nissan Sentra from Sandy Sansing Nissan.

My time in Pensacola ended with an emergency room visit to Sacred Heart Hospital for Fournier's gangrene and emergency surgery.

While I was recovering from my emergency surgery in Pensacola - I lived at my brother's house in Fort Myers.

In Fort Myers I became a member of Daniels Road Baptist Church.

Since December 2024, I have lived at the Decorum Apartments on Six Mile Cypress.

In mid-March 2026 my brother, his wife and I took a road trip to Leesburg and Albany Georgia. We made our home base at the classic hotel named Merry Acres.

While on our trip, we cruised around Americus (where I was born) and Plains (the birthplace and home of the life-sized smiling peanut, aka Jimmy Carter) and found a Christian farm and conference center named Koinonia. This is where Habitat for Humanity started.

My latest activity is called the fellowship club. Here you will find lots of opportunities to gather, meet and engage with other Christians in Fort Myers and southwest Florida.

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