I got bad news this morning. It was a little late due to heartbroken friends, vacation and down internet providers. It is shocking when serious evil hits so close.
I knew Dave Abrami, but not well. We both attended Orangewood PCA Church at the same time. We were in different Bible studies, but had lots of mutual friends and spent time talking on trips and at get togethers. We had similar religious backgrounds. Dave was a born lawyer. You couldn’t spend much time with him and not know that was what he was born to do. He had a sharp and quick mind. I remember overhearing a phone conversation between him and a Papa John’s worker about whether a “pick-up discount” was a “delivery fee”. Classic Dave.
At a wedding shower, Dave unveiled the classic poem “Ben doth Smell”. He had a quick sense of humor as well. Dave also loved the outdoors/rock climbing and would go on the Labor Day trips to TN led by guide extraordinaire Dan Velker (now in VA- on the left in the photo). In the process, Dave would talk to you about any number of subjects. He was a also a sharp-dressed man who enjoyed jazz, a good stiff drink and a good smoke. At Dan’s bachelor party dinner, he wanted us to fill the room with so much cigar smoke that we would not be able to see each other. Great times.
I lost track of Dave shortly after moving to Winter Haven. Last I knew he was getting ready to graduate from Law School (Washington & Lee), and clerk for a judge in Alabama. I’m not sure when he went back to Orlando.
Ralph Gonzalez was a long-time friend of Dave’s. I remember meeting him once or twice. He was a political strategist who was developing a reputation for some good work in campaigns. And they died together at the hands of another. Murder-suicide. David Abrami’s death brought grief to many who had the privilege of knowing him. But all is not lost, I think he has joined the great cloud of witnesses that await the arrival of rest of the saints (Hebrews 11-12).
You can now visit a site dedicated to David. And Dan Velker sent me a link on Facebook with some pictures. This photo is (l-r) me, the cigar-less David Castor, Abrami, Velker and Luke Butler @ Fiddler’s Green in Winter Park, FL. Due to the absence of facial hair, it is 2001 or earlier.
Update: I didn’t know this about Abrami, but it is classic Abrami. From the Orlando Sentinel:
“Abrami, an attorney, drew Secret Service scrutiny in 1992 while still a student at the University of Central Florida.
“As vice president of the Central Florida Young Republican Club, the 22-year-old senior announced a Turkey Shoot fundraiser where members could pay $2 to fire a shotgun at enlarged photos of then-President Clinton.
“This will be fun for the entire family,” Abrami told the Orlando Sentinel before the Secret Service persuaded him to raise money some other way. “They came down hard on us, saying we threatened the president, things like that.”
Sadly, commenters on the Sentinel website have turned this into some weird “love triangle”. Easy for people who never knew them to make these foolish accusations. To the pure all things are pure, to the impure, all things are impure.
This from Travers via e-mail:
Stunned also.
David was they guy who invited me to Orangewood and a fellow club
member at Art’s (now defunct cigar club in Orlando) and a friend and more
importantly brother in Christ.
A few Memories:
He was cutting a cigar onetime with a elegant scissors style cutter
when a lady asked him how long had he had that and he replied, without
missing a beat, “Since I was eight days old.”
Standing directly infront of Chris Probst and starting a deep
conversation when Chris was trying to watch a favorite show of his.
Standing when ever a Lady would enter or leave.
David for as long as I had knew considered his chess skills superior.
And having watched and played against they were exceptional. We were
playing one time and the game took almost 1 hour to complete and David was
intensely thinking out each move. Then I missed a move and then He
pounced claimed the victory and then stated “My heart is racing. I almost
lost to you and I am glad you missed that move”.
David – You will be missed for a while until we see you again in. Heaven. This side of eternity will not be the same without you.
While splitting wood I remembered that Abrami was one of the few people I actually beat at chess. It was completely a fluke. We were both stunned.
That was a day we spent time with a friend and his ailing father.
Abrami used to love to call Probst just before one of his favorite shows began, particularly ER (this was mid-90s). All conversations with Abrami were somehow related back to the Simpsons.
I was supposed to attend a birthday party in Orlando last month, but storms and a migraine kept me home. I guess he would have been there.
Nice memories of David. I actually worked with him back in the late 80’s/early 90’s at Disney in the Magic Kingdom. He was a great guy to work with. I hadn’t kept in touch with him since leaving Disney but it was still a shock to hear his name on the news, then to see a picture of him, confirming my fears.
My condolences to his family, and the families of the others involved.
I did not know Dave Abrami, but I am a Republican party precinct worker since 1983. 92% of my 2000 people precinct voted in the Pinellas County 101 Reagan election.
I have been following the US congressman Feeney association to the Yang enterprises investigation in 2003 that lead to the death of Raymond Lemme. He was a DOT Florida Inspector General and had evidence that he told Clinton Curtis “went straight to the top” about corruption and fraud in the Feeney Yang DOT million dollar fraud inflation of account charging to Florida DOT.
He was killed. I refuse to believe a good Cristian man, such as your friend, was in a gay love triangle. Too many dead people associated wih Yang enterprises and US Feeney….
Your readers may be interested to know that several of David’s friends have created a website in his honor, where comments can be posted in his memory.
http://www.davidjabrami.com
thanks for a great post
I met David Abrami as well (3 weeks before this incident), and what happened to him was horrible. But my impression of him was very different. He said some pretty bizarre things during the one encounter I had with him. And holding a “charity event” that involves shooting at pictures of a U.S. President? Saying it is “fun with the whole family”? I’m sorry, but anybody on here that doesn’t see a problem with that needs to be medicated. What’s insane is that people on here are more offended by suggestions that he might have been involved in a gay love-triangle. Scary.
He certainly had an unusual sense of humor that not everyone could appreciate. May have been all those Simpson episodes.
I must make a correction to the original post (being that it was my wedding shower that you attended (hello there… what a cute little girl you have)).
“Ode to the Odor of Benji” was actually a poem written and recited to us by none other than Mr. Chris Probst. Our dear friend, Dave, “gifted” us with the poem: “Oh Benji My Benji”. From it, my favorite line is:
“That I can’t attend, fills me with angered frustration,
It’s the first thing I’ve missed since our colonic irrigation.”
Oh yes it’s definitely still “classic Dave”.
We will miss him terribly.
I sit corrected! Oh, the years and cigar smoke can play tricks on the old brain.
Doth Ben still smell? 🙂 Hope you and the family are doing well up there.
The little girl is even cuter now, and a whole lot of fun.
Cav your girl is awfully cute.
We are assuming she gets her looks from her mother?
you still da man, Cav!
Clearly, I am late to the party. I just learned of David’s passing. I went to middle and high school with him back in the day. The last time I talked to him was right after the news reported him being investigated by the Secret Service. It really was funny at the time. He really was being silly with it, but I get that people don’t find that funny. I don’t think he thought anyone would take it seriously. But at 22, we didn’t take much seriously, did we? Anyway, thanks for this post and thanks for being a good friend to him. He looks happy in the pictures you linked.