January 15, 1955 – March 31, 2025

It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we share that David Ferrari passed away on March 31, 2025, from complications attributable to Alzheimer’s disease.

David James Ferrari was an exemplary human, one whose life was and is a star for all who knew him. He is a star that will always shine. He lived a life that very few people would be able to match and was a man that cared deeply about his community, and he immersed himself in it. You could say that his community was his life. He loved his community, his family, his friends, music, the 1973 Tahoe-Truckee basketball team, and the San Francisco Giants. Go Giants!

Dave was born on January 15, 1955, and in 1956, his parents, Ben and Nora Ferrari, opened the Crown Motel in Kings Beach California. Dave’s life was spent almost entirely in Kings Beach, and he was involved and instrumental in just about every aspect related to the social development of its’ young citizens. Dave believed that every person deserved an opportunity to have an education and a social infrastructure to support their development. This belief led Dave to start the La Communidad Unidad assisting the Hispanic working community. He then, knowing that after school programs were essential for the working community, helped found the Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe. In addition to running the Crown Motel, Dave worked tirelessly to help raise the funds necessary to not only fund the Boys & Girls Club, but to provide it with the facilities required for the long term. Together with his fellow founding board members, they negotiated a mixed-use agreement with the Placer County school district and raised the funds necessary to build a facility that is, to this day, used by both Kings Beach Elementary school and the Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe.

In addition to Dave’s focus on the youngest of North Lake Tahoe’s citizens, he also felt it necessary to focus and have a positive impact on those that were finishing high school and entering adulthood. To this end Dave donned his political hat and was elected as a board member for Sierra College. During his tenure on the Sierra College board, the school added their campus in Truckee, California.

Dave leaves an enviable legacy and will be missed by those too many to count. Dave is survived by the LOVES of his life; his “adopted” Nicaraguan family, Marta Hernandez and her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, Doris Kelly (Mike Kelly; Samantha, Scott, and Bridgette Enloe ), Arlen Blandino (Ethan, Nick, and Sofia Edson), Cesar Blandino, and Carlos Blandino (Rebekah and Eliana Blandino), his sisters, Marilyn Shaff and Teresa Ferrari (Jeff Saarman), and numerous nieces, nephews and their families. He was proceeded in death by his parents, Ben and Nora Ferrari, brothers Bob and Bennie Ferrari, and sister Mary Thomas.

Please think of Dave whenever you hear and sing along with the Bob Dylan song ‘Forever Young’.
“May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung. May God bless and keep you always. May you stay Forever Young”

A celebration of life will be held at the North Tahoe Event Center located in Kings Beach California on May 31, 2025, commencing at 12:00 noon. In lieu of flowers Dave requests that donations be made to the Boys & Girls Club of North Lake Tahoe, Sierra College Foundation, Tahoe-Truckee Community Foundation, 4-H Club of Kings Beach, Family Resource Center of Kings Beach, Project Mana, or the Tahoe Safe Alliance.