Ajijic resident David Walter Ladd died suddenly on August 4 at the age of 67.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 1, 1945, Ladd grew up in a bustling Scottish/Irish home with five brothers and sisters and his maternal grandmother. Two brothers and two sisters, along with 16 nieces and nephews, are still living in the United States.
Ladd was born with a sense of adventure. He met Pam in 1968 at Mount Snow Ski Resort, Vermont where he was a ski instructor. He and Pam were married the following year. For the next two years they ran the Mountain Ski Lodge at Bromely Mountain, Vermont. From Vermont their life adventure took them to Boston, where Ladd joined Marriott Hotels, which subsequently took them to the New York area and Pittsburgh. Ladd specialized in food and beverage accounting and developed Marriott’s first self-cashiering system which centralized F&B accounting for all of the Marriott Hotel/Restaurant divisions.
Getting bored with the suburban/corporate life, Pam and David returned to their ski roots, moving to Snowshoe Ski Resort in West Virginia, where they opened Montvale Management, a Real Estate/Home Rentals. After eight years on the “mountain,” they made their home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ladd, never content to do just one thing, went on to many other adventures, including managing “The Wild Thing,” a 100-foot Trimaran in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. After he returned stateside, the Ladds spent every spare moment at Cooper Island, British Virgin Islands.
Upon finding Ajijic in early 2010, they immediately fell in love with the area and moved here within three months. Ladd immediately became very active in the local golfing community, the civic community through his service as treasurer on the Mirasol board of directors and as a member of the Chapala Country Club board of directors. And for the past year, he helped manage the Monday Market.
Ladd loved to help anyone in need, loved his golf, loved his friends, loved his “petgang” (Miss Tigger, Roxxy and Pecas) and loved his Pam. He would want each of us to “live life to the fullest by always giving more than you receive.”
A special mass for Ladd will be said at San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in the village of San Antonio de Tlayacapan on Thursday, August 22, 4 p.m.