'This is a wonderful couple': Former Reno Rodeo president and wife found slain in home
The couple found dead in their south Reno home Wednesday were beloved members of the Reno Rodeo Association and community.
Jerry David was president of the Reno Rodeo in 2006 and his wife, Sherri David, was a Rodeo Association member. The couple was found dead at about 4 p.m. Wednesday in their home in South Reno. According to property records, the couple had owned the home since 1986.
"This is just a hard day for everyone," said Mike Torvinen, the rodeo's current president, in an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal. He said word about the couple's death spread quickly.
Longtime friend Alan Squailia was a governing member of the Elks Lodge of Reno with Jerry David.
"This is a wonderful couple," said Squailia, who knew the Davids for 50 years. "To hear them referred to as just an elderly couple, is so not them. They are so much more."
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He talked about the couple's love of animals and how they regularly rode their horses.
David often invited Squailia to his cabin in the Ruby Mountains.
"We often traveled together," he said.
David, Squailia said fondly, could get competitive when it came to a game of cards, and he could command a room.
"I mean that in a great way," he said. "He just would walk in a room and be noticed."
Police have not identified the Davids as the couple found dead in the South Reno home, where an active homicide investigation is underway.
During a Thursday press conference, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam released few details into his department's investigation into the deaths. He referred to the victims as an unnamed elderly couple in south Reno, saying it's too early to make many details public.
"We have all come together to make sure the public knows we are working together as a region to keep our community safe and to bring those responsible for the crimes to justice," Balaam said.
A beloved couple
Friends remembered Jerry and Sherri David in interview with the Gazette-Journal.
"He was just always a gentleman," Torvinen said of Jerry David. Torvinen said David mentored him and always made it clear that he was available to help.
"I never heard him say a bad word about anyone," Torvinen said.
According to the Reno Rodeo, David grew up in Susanville and joined an electrical apprenticeship program. He was a journeyman electrician and estimator and retired as business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
He served as the exalted ruler of the Reno Elks Lodge in 1981, and still was active in the service organization, according to Squailia.
"I'm doing an annual crab feed next week and I knew I could count on him to buy a bunch of tickets and bring his rodeo friends."
Dee Boskie first met the Davids as members of the Elks in 1980.
"They were just the type of couple who would give you the shirt off their backs," Boskie said.
"She was the more outgoing one, but when he had something to say, he said it," Boskie said.
Sherri David said in a special advertising section in the Gazette-Journal in 2003 that she and her husband loved the camaraderie of the rodeo and had become collectors of old bits and spurs and horse-related tacks and memorabilia.
"I have learned so much about this cowboy way of life we love," she said.
The couple had been involved in the rodeo since 1991. It was the same year she won a prize for her chocolate cake at the Nevada State Fair.
“The biggest reason I volunteer is the friends I’ve met. My two best friends I met at the rodeo. I love to be around horse people – good, community-minded people who want to be involved," she said in 2001.
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: 'This is a wonderful couple': Former Reno Rodeo president and wife found slain in home
