London
godspeed Dave RIP.
(Topic ID: 262476)
Miami, FL
This is awful and so sudden...
As others here, I knew Dave “Taxman“ from his prolific posting on Pinside.
I always loved seeing his firebrand comments keeping threads interesting and never afraid to educate folks on the magnitude of their sin for color GI.
RIP a man so great that you didn’t even need to meet him to feel like you knew him. 
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I’ll pass these on to his family. It was devastating when I got the call in the middle of the night. I still can’t believe he’s gone.
It seems like it was indeed a heart attack that took him as he went to bed for the night.
That man taught me so much. He was a wealth of knowledge. And always was too helpful when you needed it. He was the biggest curmudgeon I’ve ever known in my life and some how the kindest and most thoughtful person I’ve known in this hobby. He was more than just a pinball friend as we got to know eachother over the past decade.
And anyone on here that thinks you didn’t always see eye to eye with him it was all a show. He absolutely loved pulling someone’s chain and it was all in good fun. I’ve had some of the most brutal things said to me by him and it made us both smile.
If anyone is interest his wake will be Monday night from 4-7 in Stratford CT. It would be great to show his family just how much he meant to this community and how much it meant to him.
After the service we will meet back at The Sanctum in Meriden CT for the community to honor him for the night. Many of us will be adorning his signature Hawaiian shirts and be drinking his Sam Adams Cherry wheat beer. We also will be aquiring one of his actual shirts to hang in the rafters of the sanctum as a memorial to him. I hope many of you can join us for either of these on Monday. Doors for the sanctum will be open later than usual around 7:30 to accommodate the wake. At the wake in lieu of flowers it’s been requested to make donations to the humane society of Connecticut so We will be taking the door money Monday night and having a local player match it and donate to the humane society in his name.
Monday’s were our usual night for us to all hang with Taxman. Despite his crippling social anxiety in public he made it a point to make it to every Monday night for the past 6 years I’ve had this place open. Even Sunday for our tournament we had no idea how many would show. He came. And watched the crowd size. He was there to play if our turnout was low to help make it not a poorly attended event. Our turnout was great so he quietly went home for the night and came back the next day to play league in our usual crowd. He was a massive supporter of everything pinball in this state. If you were part of this community in this state and didn’t know him it’s a shame.
Sorry for the rambling and any typos. It’s been a rough few days and I’ve been waiting to say anything to the community until some of this stuff had been sorted.
-Jim
5F86AD81-A82D-48F3-B656-13E428E87345 (resized).jpegAnd some fun photos of Dave from our selfie league we ran a few years back. Typical Dave fashion he bitched me out about games being too tight and he couldn’t get his face next to the scores for pictures to submit so he took his photo and made a cutout of it on a stick and used it to take the selfies.
One night he just said fuck it and put his signature beer in the picture instead as there was no mistake that anyone else would of been drinking that!
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Quoted from Whridlsoncestood:Thanks for the kind words everyone. I’ll pass these on to his family. It was devastating when I got the call in the middle of the night. I still can’t believe he’s gone.
It seems like it was indeed a heart attack that took him as he went to bed for the night.
That man taught me so much. He was a wealth of knowledge. And always was too helpful when you needed it. He was the biggest curmudgeon I’ve ever known in my life and some how the kindest and most thoughtful person I’ve known in this hobby. He was more than just a pinball friend as we got to know eachother over the past decade.
And anyone on here that thinks you didn’t always see eye to eye with him it was all a show. He absolutely loved pulling someone’s chain and it was all in good fun. I’ve had some of the most brutal things said to me by him and it made us both smile.
If anyone is interest his wake will be Monday night from 4-7 in Stratford CT. It would be great to show his family just how much he meant to this community and how much it meant to him.
After the service we will meet back at The Sanctum in Meriden CT for the community to honor him for the night. Many of us will be adorning his signature Hawaiian shirts and be drinking his Sam Adams Cherry wheat beer. We also will be aquiring one of his actual shirts to hang in the rafters of the sanctum as a memorial to him. I hope many of you can join us for either of these on Monday. Doors for the sanctum will be open later than usual around 7:30 to accommodate the wake. At the wake in lieu of flowers it’s been requested to make donations to the humane society of Connecticut so We will be taking the door money Monday night and having a local player match it and donate to the humane society in his name.
Monday’s were our usual night for us to all hang with Taxman. Despite his crippling social anxiety in public he made it a point to make it to every Monday night for the past 6 years I’ve had this place open. Even Sunday for our tournament we had no idea how many would show. He came. And watched the crowd size. He was there to play if our turnout was low to help make it not a poorly attended event. Our turnout was great so he quietly went home for the night and came back the next day to play league in our usual crowd. He was a massive supporter of everything pinball in this state. If you were part of this community in this state and didn’t know him it’s a shame.
Sorry for the rambling and any typos. It’s been a rough few days and I’ve been waiting to say anything to the community until some of this stuff had been sorted.
-Jim[quoted image]
Jim and all,
I’m so sorry for your loss. Just found out about this.
When I first arrived at the Sanctum, in Dec of 2017, I was awestruck. I had no idea a pinball community and no idea tournaments existed. The next week, I sign up to play.
One of the many people I meet? Dave Tkacs. He of course beats me at a game he owned - Junkyard.
Me being completely new - he was kind enough to go over the rules a little and introduce me to a couple people around us.
I didn’t get to know him on a personal level, but over the next couple years, we’d have small talk and play against each other - a lot. He helped with a tech question whenever I had one.
He was most definitely young at heart. Making little jokes here and there - he was genuinely liked by all. Gone much much too soon.
I’m saddened to hear about his passing.
His impact on our local pinball community and the community at large has been tremendous.
Again, my best to his friends and family.
Eric
RIP Brother! We all go sometimes and sometimes way to early. You had several more games to buy, sell, fix and play. I have no doubt that your wife will think of you daily, especially every time she passes by that massive collection of pinball games you have!!! Hopefully there will be another flip party at your home in your honor.
So sad!!!!
Brampton, ON
Bermuda Triangle
So sorry to hear this. Always a shame to hear of a loss of a fellow collector. May he rest in peace and his family have the love and support they need to get through this time.
Chris
Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends. Way too young, such a shame.
I met Dave a few years back when he bought my JunkYard....such a nice guy and ZERO problems with the transaction. We got talking and it turns out we're the exact same age and had a lot of old friends (from school) in common. Decent guy, and will surely be missed. RIP Dave....
Hope the Monday night memorial went OK at The Sanctum; I've only been down twice for Monday nights, don't hang out late, still a little overwhelmed by it all. Never did more than pass Dave, give a quick nod, as I made my circuit around the room but definitely remember him being there both times; you can just tell when someone is a fixture. Was sad to hear of his passing, and the loss to the local community and to his family.
Ya'll seem like a pretty tight bunch, and I am sure there are many hours spent together working on games, moving stuff around, cleaning the place up, as well as playing, so it has to hurt.
Quoted from Whridlsoncestood:After the service we will meet back at The Sanctum in Meriden CT for the community to honor him for the night. Many of us will be adorning his signature Hawaiian shirts and be drinking his Sam Adams Cherry wheat beer. We also will be aquiring one of his actual shirts to hang in the rafters of the sanctum as a memorial to him.
That's frikkin' awesome. In true pinside fashion: wish I was closer.
RIP Taxman.
Quoted from JudeRussell:Hope the Monday night memorial went OK at The Sanctum; I've only been down twice for Monday nights, don't hang out late, still a little overwhelmed by it all. Never did more than pass Dave, give a quick nod, as I made my circuit around the room but definitely remember him being there both times; you can just tell when someone is a fixture. Was sad to hear of his passing, and the loss to the local community and to his family.
Ya'll seem like a pretty tight bunch, and I am sure there are many hours spent together working on games, moving stuff around, cleaning the place up, as well as playing, so it has to hurt.
I'm not speaking for the crowd, but I think the memorial went great, with many in attendance (which Taxman would have HATED, haha) in full Hawaiian shirt regalia, and nearly everyone drinking Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat beer.
We were joking that for any first time visitors or casual observers, they would have thought they entered the Twilight Zone/some weird cult (Which Taxman would have thought was hilarious) because nearly every person there was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and drinking Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat beer, in a crowd of about 100. This on top of a room filled with people, in a room filled with nothing but pinball machines, which many think in and of itself, is a little out there.
Cheers to the only guy that I've ever met that could pretty much tell you the different colors of the wires (!), and their respective functions(!!), from memory(!!!), used in the harnesses of basically every 90's B/W made(!!!!), just because...
Cheers to the one and only Taxman!
Very sad news, but nice to read that he received a proper send off from his local pinball community.
Yeah it was hard but felt good. I appreciate everyone who cane out to the wake and the Celebration after. It meant a lot to me. And with everyone’s generosity we raised 2000$ last night to donate to the Connecticut humane society in his name. Thank you a ton everyone.
I’ve hung two of his original Hawaiian shirts from the rafters until we can properly get them matted in a tribute to him.
097E1019-51A0-4F9A-8A11-4CD45A68B952 (resized).jpeg15D7CC60-AFD2-4AAC-B277-2656776D3A28 (resized).jpeg25482A68-8C4B-48CC-A22C-6215AB19B930 (resized).jpeg9AC9CCDC-81DD-43A1-B61B-EBAD471A2806 (resized).jpeg527E3374-3C9B-45D1-87FA-48D9CCE59B1D (resized).jpeg6E8B66A4-F9B7-4AD1-ADED-8DA67A3579A0 (resized).jpegA1AFCDB6-87EC-4DBA-8ADA-553EC2017FB3 (resized).jpegA7AA73DA-A1A7-455F-B680-3BF5EF25FFBE (resized).jpeg 2 weeks later
Quoted from Whridlsoncestood:Yeah it was hard but felt good. I appreciate everyone who cane out to the wake and the Celebration after. It meant a lot to me. And with everyone’s generosity we raised 2000$ last night to donate to the Connecticut humane society in his name. Thank you a ton everyone.
I’ve hung two of his original Hawaiian shirts from the rafters until we can properly get them matted in a tribute to him.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
I loved reading his "It's a real pig!" story, can we get a copy of that original pig photo somewhere too? He mentioned he should have plenty of them! That would be great to hang one with his shirts, I was laughing my ass off reading that!!
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:I loved reading his "It's a real pig!" story, can we get a copy of that original pig photo somewhere too? He mentioned he should have plenty of them! That would be great to hang one with his shirts, I was laughing my ass off reading that!!
I haven’t come across one yet. We haven’t been able to clean his house out just yet. I do have his shirts and we have one being framed with some items close to him and a memorial plaque to put up at The Sanctum shortly.
Man, a germophobe like Dave would have been sitting back in a pinball-laden isolation chamber somewhere in his house, repeating like a mantra, "I tried to tell you assholes..." 
Quoted from beelzeboob:Man, a germophobe like Dave would have been sitting back in a pinball-laden isolation chamber somewhere in his house, repeating like a mantra, "I tried to tell you assholes..."
Exactly! He was waiting for this day. Figures his place of employment was the first case in the state too. He would of lost it.
I really wish he was here still. He’d be isolated away but I could really use his grumpy commentary on all this right now.
2 weeks later
Quoted from Whridlsoncestood:[quoted image][quoted image]
Very cool man. He’ll now live on forever at the Sanctum.
Quoted from Whridlsoncestood:[quoted image][quoted image]
That looks great!!
Awesome tribute for a great guy!!
Phoebe
1 year later
Was reading some old threads and seen Taxmans status. I didn’t realize he had passed. I never met him but we recognize people on this site via avatars and names when we haven’t met them in person. My condolences for those who personally knew him and had interaction with him.
As I read through this thread I seen another member who commented and he has also passed (I remembered his passing). So I started looking though all the status of the people who posted on her, some are blocked and some are inactive. Life is short, all the silly bickering that goes on really doesn’t mean anything in the end.
I’m glad for those who posted their experience with taxman and it goes to show that people aren’t always who they seem on pinside, most of the time they are much better. He seemed like a genuine and kind man.
Godspeed
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