There may not have been a man so thoroughly Rockford than Dave Shultz, who passed away August 4th, 2026, at the age of 81. Born December 4, 1944, Dave was son of Claude and Ruth (Goodwin) Shultz. When he was a child, fellow churchgoers would take him to Rockford Peaches games just to get him out of his mother's hair for a bit.

As a high schooler, he got a part-time job at the Rockford Morning Star taking phone calls for the sports department - and then never left, spending 52 years working for what became the Rockford Register Star.

He was in the newsroom for all the major events that shaped the world - the first moon landing, President Richard Nixon's resignation, the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, Bush vs. Gore, Y2K and the Great Recession. At least he was out of there by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his time in journalism, he served first in his "dream job" as a sportswriter. He interviewed and traveled the country to cover such people as Olympic figure skaters David Santee and bronze medalist Janet Lynn, with whom he remained friends the rest of his life.

Dave was sports editor for much of the 1970s and 1980s as computers began to transform the world and how people consume information. He then headed the Neighbors section for more than a decade, which pretty much published everything that the working families of Rockford needed to know to get through their busy weeks.

He even spent much of his free time in competitive sports with newspaper co-workers, on the bowling and fast pitch/slow pitch softball teams in the Rockford Industrial Athletic Association.

Dave spent much of the final two decades as assistant city editor and night city editor. In that role, he mentored a new generation of reporters who had information at their fingertips but still needed his encyclopedic memory not just of Rockford's past, but of other subjects, such as his lifelong obsession with the sinking of the Titanic.

Finally, he was a savant and friend to those same staffers as the internet chipped away at the institution that had shaped his life.

Dave was an equally proud East High School graduate from the Class of 1962. This was when East, as Dave would remind you, competed on equal terms with the best in the state. Dave was team manager for the 1960-61 boys basketball team that made it to the state tournament — with future American Basketball Association Star Skip Thoren — and the 1962 baseball team that advanced to state with the help of Ken Franzen.

Franzen, a recurring interviewee, later would coach the baseball team at Harlem High School and run Forest Hills Diamonds. In his final years, Dave would have breakfast with Ken every Tuesday as part of weekly breakfast of mostly East Alums. He remained a dedicated E-Rab fan to the end. Any night that Dave was free and the boys’ basketball team was playing at home, you could find him watching in the stands.

The East High role as manager was perfect for Dave, who from a very early age was a stickler for records and accuracy. He recorded his daily automobile mileage and how much he paid for gas in hundreds of notebooks. When fantasy baseball was invented in the 1980s, he had a new obsession, spending hours poring through statistics for his next fantasy draft.

Of all sports, by far his favorite was baseball. Dave became a New York Yankees fan by watching, hearing and reading about the great Yankees teams of the 1950s - Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford. He served as official scorekeeper for the various Class A minor league teams - Rockford Expos, Royals, Cubbies and Reds - that played at Marinelli Field and then for a time for the Rockford Rivets.

His love for baseball was passed on to his four kids, three with his first wife, and a son, London, with his second wife, Dawne Scalise. They were married in 1995. Interestingly, the kids all became fans of the Cubs, White Sox and Brewers. Dave stood alone as the only family Yankees fanatic, but that didn't keep him from traveling with his daughter, Heidi, to 10 Brewers games every year as part of a limited season ticket package.

Despite all of these interests, his family was his greatest joy. There also was some sorrow: His father died when Dave was 5; and his daughter, Susan, was diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s and the treatments for her to beat it led to her premature death in 1995. But Dave faced the tough times with the same even demeanor as in the good and remained dedicated to his family to the end. That included spending countless hours driving London to and from DeKalb to make sure he could finish his degree at Northern Illinois University.

Something else that helped Dave through hard times was his faith; Dave was a longtime member of Central Christian Church and then First Covenant Church until his death.

The final couple of years were difficult as his body wore down, but Dave kept up as busy a schedule as he could. He was hoping to get another season in as part of the Rock Valley College basketball stat crew and was supposed to go to the monthly Rockford Register Star retirees’ breakfast when God decided it was time that he needed another Yankees fan in heaven.

He is survived by his wife, Dawne Scalise; daughter Heidi (Javier) Saavedra; sons Andrew (Meredith) Shultz and London Scalise Shultz; grandkids Nikara (Ray) Conner, Kassy (Robert) Lieb, Kayden Shultz, Jackson Shultz, Reagan Shultz; great granddaughters Rachel Lieb, Callahan Warmoth, Sofia Conner, Isabel Conner, Dylan Conner, Audrey Lieb, and Harper Conner; his brother Tom (Kathy) Shultz, and many nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents Claude and Ruth Shultz; daughter Susan Anderson; his brother, James (Joyce) Shultz, and his sisters Harriett (Bob) Anderson and Beryl (Roger) Johnson.

Visitation will take place on Saturday, August 15, 2026, from 10:30 a.m. until the time of memorial service, 12:00 p.m. at First Covenant Church, 316 Wood Rd, Rockford, IL 61107. In lieu of flowers, please consider memorials made to Noah’s Ark, or a local food pantry of your choice. Fitzgerald Funeral Home & Crematory, Mulford Chapel, assisted the family; to send online condolences or share memories, please visit www.fitzgeraldfh.com

*IF ORDERING FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS, PLEASE ONLY SEND PLANTS*