David Van Nostrand
1940-2018
David was born January 30, 1940 to D.J. and Arline Van Nostrand who are both deceased. He passed away on August 6, 2018 in Edmond, Oklahoma. While David and his brother were growing up, the family moved regularly, seldom living in the same community over six months. They finally settled in the Village where David graduated from John Marshall High School in 1958. He attended OSU and Central State College. He enlisted in the Air National Guard at Will Rogers Airport, serving first in personnel, then in the Air Police.
He met and married his wife, Lynda Self while working at the Edmond Police Department. She was the City Managers Secretary at the time. Most of his professional career was spent in public service in and around Edmond. It started in the Edmond Police Department where he served as a dispatcher, then as an officer becoming the first Juvenile Officer in the department attaining the rank of Lieutenant. From there he went to Oklahoma County Children's Court where he was a counselor supervisor. Six years later he became the Transportation Director for Edmond Public Schools establishing a new bus routing system and a driver's regulation handbook.
In 1980, he was selected as Edmond's first full time Emergency Manager. He held that position for 17 years. During that period, he was responsible for establishing a new Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the old post office. Fire and police dispatchers later moved to the EOC as Central Communications. As director of the new department, he established a cross training program which provided the dispatchers training needed to handle any emergency from the protected environment of the EOC.
He left Edmond to become the Emergency Manager for Oklahoma County where he operated a spotter network of 40 volunteers and helped the eastern Oklahoma County fire departments establish an Incident Command system.
After 9 years, he and his wife along with their mothers moved to Eufaula. While in Eufaula, he worked part time for Oklahoma Emergency Management. He and a co-worker later formed Hazard Mitigation Specialists, writing pre-disaster plans for cities, counties and school districts enabling them to qualify for federal funding for disaster related projects.
He enjoyed fishing, camping, and playing Texas canasta. David spent much of his time working with Boy Scouts serving Troop 78, Troop 79 and Troop 94 as the Scoutmaster. He was also Explorer Advisor for Explorer Emergency Service Post 579. He survived 57 years in scouting completing recent years as an Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 94.
David is survived by his wife of 54 years, Lynda, of the home, Terri Serrato and husband John of Edmond, Rick Van Nostrand and wife, Erin, of Kingfisher County and Kathy Miller of Edmond, OK. Other survivors include his brother, Chuck Van Nostrand and Phyllis of Alexandria, VA and grandchildren, Zack, Gabrielle, and Eva and cousins, Roger and Diana Gibson and Linda DeVries
David was a member of Santa Fe Presbyterian Church where he was serving as a Deacon at the time of his death.
Services will be held at Santa Fe Presbyterian Church, 1603 N. Santa Fe on Monday, August 13, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. under the direction of Matthews Funeral Home. Interment will follow at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Sooner and Waterloo, Edmond.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Santa Fe Presbyterian Church Building Fund, 1603 N. Santa Fe Edmond, OK 73003 or the Boy Scouts of America, Last Frontier Council.