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Roadster Owner Passes

To: "Mike Jennings" <datsit@hotmail.com>, "Dawn & Dave"
Subject: Roadster Owner Passes
From: "datsunmike" <datsunmike@nyc.rr.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 19:17:22 -0400
After a great weekend at the MG national I was left a voice message that
informed me that a fellow Roadster owner and friend, Dave Ondecko of Vestal
NY, died earlier this month. My smile was quickly wiped off my face and
replaced by sorrow.

I met Dave at the Glen almost 4 years ago and we became Roadster buddies.
Probably most of you who attended the Glen events will not remember Dave as
he was a soft spoken and fairly shy guy but he had a heart as big as could
be. He was the kinda guy who would give you the shirt off of his back if he
thought you needed it and he was the kinda guy who made the world a better
place, a much better place, to live in. He was generous to a fault and he
was the type of person I aspire to be.

The last 3 times I went to the Glen I stopped off at his place in Vestal to
shoot the breeze and talk about Roadsters and life. I remember that the
first year I went to visit him he wouldn't allow me to  leave his garage w/o
a new extra distributor cap when I told him I didn't carry a spare and he
refused to take any money for it. He also gave me wax and a bunch of other
stuff he insisted I have including a pair of NOS 2L SU carbs when he thought
that my recently rebuilt carbs weren't rebuilt good enough. Fortunately I
was able to convince him to take some money for the carbs.

Last year when I went to visit he showed me the house he was rebuilding and
his plans for his dream garage complete with radiant heat. When I asked his
fiancie about the garage she told me he died while working on it as the
floor and foundation were poured only a week before. It was his dream to
have the perfect garage and he was on his way to his dream after numerous
problems and delays in getting permits to put it up.

Dave had several Roadsters that his fiancie, Lisa, would like to sell as
well as a slew of various parts, but Lisa will keep his stock 1600 and I
hope I can convince Lisa to attend the Glen event this year. Dave was in the
middle of building a supercharged V6 roadster but I don't know how far his
project came along since I saw it last September and I promised Lisa that I
would come up in September before the Glen to help her out in cataloging
what Dave had in his garage. I will post the info to the list when I receive
it.

One more thing - Dave was the kinda guy we would all be proud to have as a
friend, as you couldn't find a better friend. It's just too bad for me that
he lived so far away although we did keep in touch by phone.

I will miss him.

Mike






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