Obituary of William David Wallace

William David “Dave” Wallace passed away peacefully on October 18, 2024; from a stroke he sustained the previous day.  He is predeceased by his parents, William Jackson Wallace and Barbara Iris Jane Wallace, and brother Paul.  He is survived by his loving wife of sixty years, Maj-Len Birgita Wallace, two children Bill (Wanda) Wallace and Ruth (Eric) Wallace and (step)grandchildren Anna, Annia, Emma, Gareth, Irina, Isaac, Josiah, Matthew and Nathan.

Dave was born on October 22, 1940, in Hamilton, Ontario. At age 5 he traveled with his parents to Ethiopia, where his dad was training evangelists for the Kale Hewet church in Jimma and Bonga.  One day while still quite young, he came home disheartened because he had not learned how to read at the mission boarding school in Addis Ababa. Happily, his mother taught him, and by the end of the break he read the novel Quo Vadis.  By the time he finished elementary school, he had read all the books in the school library, even the encyclopedia.  Some of his favorite recollections from Ethiopia include roaming on the hillsides with Ethiopian boys while he was on break, eating tropical fruits, seeing the black and white colobus monkeys swinging in the trees, and swimming in the hot springs of Lake Shala.

He returned to Canada for high school and subsequently completed a bachelor’s in electrical engineering in 1964 and a masters the following year, both at the University of Waterloo.  While on co-op in Montreal, he met his future wife, Maj-Len, and mailed her a proposal letter while she was studying at Briarcrest in Saskatchewan. After graduation, Dave began working in the new field of computer engineering. Their first daughter, Ruth, was born in Waterloo, and then a second child, Bill, came along in New Jersey. In 1973, he had a year-long contract to design a traffic control system for Helsinki, Finland.  The family toured north of the arctic circle, seeing tundra covered with red lingonberry bushes, white passes carved through mountain snow, and deep blue fjords.

After their time in Finland, Dave and Maj-Len toured Europe, making a stop at L’Abri in Switzerland. It was there, staying with their friends Francis and Edith Schaeffer, that Dave found  reinforcement in faith and inspiration that he carried the rest of his life: “…there can be no truth if there is no adequate base; [Christianity] is prepared to face the consequences of being proved false. As Paul once said to Corinthians: If you find the body of Christ, the discussion is finished, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.”

Dave’s renewed spirituality inspired him and his wife to do several acts of good and charity, such as helping his and Maj-Len’s siblings and by supporting homeless shelters and food banks.

Back in Ontario, Dave worked on compilers for IBM, rising to the most senior Canadian technical position by the time of his retirement in 2005.  During his vacations, he and Maj-Len (with help from relatives) built a beautiful cottage on the shores of Lake Ontario.  He enjoyed sailing at the cottage and shared his enthusiasm with both kids.  While on IBM assignment to California, he went skiing in the winter and touring in the camper in the summer.  He continued to support Maj-Len in her artistic endeavors as a student and a quilter.

During retirement, they lived in downtown Ottawa, and he would walk their little, friendly dog past the nearby homeless shelter and share snacks from his pockets.  After a round of harsh but effective chemotherapy in 2014, his health declined, and they moved closer to son Bill in Waterloo in 2019.

Visitation will be held at Community Christian Reformed Church in Kitchener on Sunday, October 27^th at 2 p.m. followed by the funeral service at 3 p.m.  Donations to a food bank in Dave’s name would be appreciated and can be arranged through www.erbgood.com