David "Dave" L. Wells 
( January 30, 1950 - April 16, 2021 )
David L. “Dave” Wells passed away April 16, 2021 at Licking Memorial Hospital in the Selma Markowitz Hospice unit. He was born to Robert and Carol Wells “who named the child David” on January 30, 1950 in Dayton, OH.
Dave was a 1968 graduate of Newark High School and was a professional mechanic for a large portion of his life. Dave had many joys in life, an excellent sense of humor, and lately, strong political views. He loved jazz, playing the drums, old movies, golf (sometimes), fishing, Cincinnati Reds baseball, and going on motorcycle rides.
He will be missed by his three sisters, Elizabeth and Rosemary Wells and Georgia (Michael) Hartman.
The family would like to thank First Light, Hospice of Central Ohio (especially Larissa) for the kindness, care, and respect they showed to David.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Central Ohio, 2269 Cherry Valley Rd., Newark, OH 43055.
At David’s request, no funeral services will be held.
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Roger McDonald
I'm pretty sure the last time I saw Dave was in the 1980s. It was just a chance, brief meeting in Newark somewhere. But during our Cherry Valley elementary years, Dave and his family were very much part of me and my brother's lives, as he lived a short block away on N. 31st Street and had a mother with an incredible tolerance for juvenile mayhem. So we gravitated there for basketball games on his driveway court (an added lower hoop allowed us to pretend we were in the NBA), baseball games in the then-undeveloped lot on the northwest side of Main Street and 31st, and other assorted hijinks. Dave's mind in the latter category was endlessly inventive. Somehow he conceived the idea of fastening a spring-operated clothes pin to the end of a small piece of wood, adding a grip or two, and then stretching a rubber band from the "trigger" clothes pin to a notch on the other end of the wood "barrel" to make a rubber-band "rifle" or "pistol" to be used in pitched battles in and around the Wells's home. One day my brother and I carried our small single-shot "rifles" and a pocketful of rubber bands over to Dave's house. Telling us to wait down in the basement, he rushed upstairs. He finally appeared and we were terrified: He had attached a half-dozen or so clothes pins to one end of a two-by-four board, treble the size of our pipsqueak shooters with six times the firepower, and armed with supersized rubber bands! It was a rout. Then there was the wheeled "tank" with masonite armor to be deployed in water-balloon battles, but that's another story. I'm certainly glad that, in later years, Dave turned his mechanical talents to more benign use. I'll always associate Dave with those goofy, carefree days of youth, in the years before bullets replaced our rubber bands, and the neighborhood was our world.
Nancy Baughman (Fetter)
What a great tribute, Roger. Such wonderful memories.