Dave was born in Zanesville in 1950 to the late James and Vera Ellis. He attended Rosecrans High School where he was a member of the track team and captain of the basketball and golf teams.

He received a degree in anthropology from The Ohio State University and graduated from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in 1978.

Dave began golfing when was twelve years old, playing occasional weekend rounds with his father at Jaycee Golf Course. After his dad joined Zanesville Country Club, Dave had access to teaching pros such as Paul Thomas.

His parents would often drop him and his younger brother Steve off at his grandparents’ house on Country Club Drive, where their reward for mowing the lawn was a round of golf at the club.

Dave continued to be an avid golfer as an adult and developed an interest in all aspects of the game, including golf with hickory shafted clubs. Friendships with other hickory players desiring to return to the roots of the game led to travel and tournaments around the world, especially to the British Isles.

Dave’s accomplishments include being a three-time winner of the ZCC scratch club
championship; being a two-time winner of the ZCC scratch partnership, once with each
Stewart brother, Charlie and Bill, playing in several Ohio Amateur tournaments and US
Open qualifiers, and qualifying for the ZDGA tournament many years.

In the world of hickory golf, Dave has won the Foxfire Senior Hickory Championship four times in a row and was a member of the victorious US team in the International Hickory Open.

Dave has had three holes in one during his playing days, one at Lancaster Country Club and two at Zanesville Country Club.