David Sirota Bennett was born Nov. 3, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, to Benjamin and Josephine Adrian Sirota. Ben Sirota passed before Dave was 2 and when Josephine married Dick Bennett, he adopted Dave as his own. The Bennetts moved first to Tucson, Arizona, and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Dave graduated high school and began his college studies at the University of New Mexico.

When the family moved to Miami, Florida, Dave transferred from UNM to the University of Miami. It was there that he met the person who would change his life forever, Mary Linda Huff.

Neither Dave nor Linda's parents approved of their engagement. His family was Jewish, hers Catholic, and their objections were faith-based. They were cut off by their families, but eloped on Sept. 12, 1963, beginning their life together with $75.00.

The new couple crossed the Hudson River and settled in New Jersey where their daughter, Cindy, was born. They weren't there long though, Dave's first career as a computer guru pulling them to Louisville, Kentucky, when one of Colonel Sanders' associates called him to be the head of data processing at what was then the world's largest fast-food company, ensuring the proper functioning of KFC's two-city-block-size collection of whirring tape reels, crunching punch cards, and blinking cabinets.

While in Louisville, Dave and Linda's son Mark was born, and Dave was bitten by the restauranteur bug, culminating in a family move to St. Louis, Missouri, where Dave opened two H. Salt Seafood Galley franchises. No sooner had Dave taught Cindy how to safely cut onion rings, however, than a grander restaurant opportunity emerged: opening TJ Crumps in the Saks Fifth Avenue Center on South Post Oak in Houston, Texas.

Dave ran a successful restaurant but enjoyed the management end of the job more than the restaurant end and sold his share in the business to become a management systems consultant. Though already successful by any measure, it was with this move that Dave's professional life really took flight. The career he built took him as far afield as Singapore, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, the Australian Outback, and countless cities across North America, overseeing sometimes years-long projects for clients such as American Express Europe, ConAgra Foods, and Southern Pacific Railroad, while applying an unparalleled ability to look at a problem from a macro standpoint and identify the fundamental errors in place.

The travel involved kept Dave away from his home and family for long stretches of time. This brought him no joy but was balanced by the fact that he was doing everything he did for them. He wanted nothing more than their success and happiness and to do everything he could to support the furtherance of both.

Bennett Family vacations were a thing of joy, a force of their own, fully occupying both wherever they went and their own spot in family history. As the kids got older, he and Linda continued to travel, with frequent trips to both Tucson and Sante Fe, New Mexico, among their most anticipated and fondly reflected upon getaways.

When not working or travelling for fun, Dave enjoyed science fiction, sudoku, reading, and applying logic to anything and everything.

Dave passed peacefully, Mar. 4, 2022, surrounded by family. Dave was preceded in death by his wife of 49 years, Linda, and is survived by his daughter Cindy (Chris), son Mark, grandchildren Drew and Sarah, and brother Lloyd (Arlene).