David’s father was in the Navy, and David was born at the Great Lakes Navel Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, on October 15th, 1946.

Almost immediately after, the family moved to Texas. As where his father was stationed changed, the family moved to California, Hawaii, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

Whenever his father had sea duty, David returned to his Grandpa’s farm in Oxford (upstate New York).

His Grandfather was very old school and while he was still actively farming, he used teams of draft horses. David well remembered driving the team as they went about the farm’s duties. When old enough to be useful, he worked on his uncle’s dairy farm, also in upstate NY.

David’s final years of schooling were in his adopted hometown high school of Oxford Academy and Central School. Putting little effort into academics, he did better in athletics.

He was the starting right guard in the league championship year of 1963.

The only other league championship year was when David’s older brother Dale played on the Oxford football team twelve years earlier. Coach often asked if David had any other brothers.

David also took the school track record for the 440-yard dash; it removed his own father from the record book. David’s record only stood until his brother-in-law Arthur removed him.

After finishing high school, David took a job at Vernon Downs, a harness racing track in upstate New York, as a groom in the Merlin Bossard stable. David had always liked horses but his early moving around in his father’s naval life made having his own impossible.

It was in his high school years that he bought his first horse and used it often, including going to the high school prom in a horse and buggy.
After two years of tending racehorses, David enlisted in the US Marine Corps.

All male members of his family (father, uncles, brothers, and brothers-in-law) were in, or had been in, the various branches of the armed services.

After almost a year of electronic schooling David was sent to Vietnam, where he served his thirteen-month normal marine tour of duty plus an extra six months voluntarily.

The extra time volunteering gave him 30 days of home leave, which he used his to return to Oxford and marry his first wife, Barbara Dutton. In their 30 years of marriage, prior to her passing from heart disease, they had two children, Erin and Kirt. Erin grew up in Albion, NY and married Kenny Johnson, but a car accident cut short the lives of her, and her two-week-old son Brian.

Kirt grew to manhood and earned his Doctoral Degree; he currently teaches at a private high school in California. He married a wonderful woman, Ana Munoz Elizondo, and has two remarkable girls, Gabriella and Aurora, and a gifted stepson Pedro Brenes Munoz.

While in the Marines, David made every rank meritoriously: PFC, Lance Corporal, Corporal, and Sergeant. He was nominated for the Silver Star for his capturing of 18 North Vietnamese regular soldiers.

He was also nominated for a Bronze Star for warning Mag 16 of a possible saboteur attack. Once alerted, they did a base-wide search and found four Viet Cong placing explosive charges in the helicopters stationed on base.

This saved the helicopters, which were then able to play a vital role in repulsing the North Vietnamese in the Tet offensive that would start just a week later. After Vietnam, David returned to San Diego to teach in the Marine Electronic School for 6 months and was discharged early in recognition of his service in Vietnam.

After the Marines, David returned to Oxford to work at a two-way radio repair shop in Binghamton, New York and for a few years as the cable television technician for Oxford, New Berlin, and Franklin, New York.

After a few years as a repair tech, he went to work for the Harris Corporation in their field service department. It was Harris Corp that sent him all over the world. David worked in or visited 42 countries, some for long terms. He was in Saudi Arabia for 5 and 1/2 years, Nigeria for a year, and made multiple trips to Mexico.

It was during his time with Harris that he met two of the kings of Saudi Arabia (King Faisal, and his son and heir King Fahd), as well as the Crown Prince, Turki. He also met the chairman of OPEC, the crown prince of Qatar, the Sultan of Brunei, the president of Mexico and while in Nigeria, Chief Abiola who was later elected president but assassinated before he could take office.

Leaving Harris Corp after 9 and ½ years, David began a career as a contract worker. This allowed him time in-between contracts to own, train, and race harness horses.

These contracts brought him to Venezuela for over a year, the Philippines for a year and some months, California for a year and the state of Washington.

It was while working in Alaska for two years that he met and married Sandi Barksdale. Sandi was born and raised in Alaska by her father, John, and mother, Josephine. Sandi has an older brother still residing in Alaska, David Barksdale. Sandi also is the mother of two surviving sons Josh McCarron and Jason Slagter. Sandi’s surviving sister Livia is married to a local Iowan, Mick Stewart of Graettinger.

A forced medical retirement saw David and Sandi moving to Graettinger, IA, in 2003. He remained active as an owner, trainer and driver with his racing harness horses until just recently when he scaled back to just owner.

David had a two-year working relationship with The Joel McDaniel Stable headed by Joel and his partner Gail Morris. He enjoyed a close, friendly relationship with Joel and Gail, and followed their stable in person at Humboldt, IA and via the internet their racing throughout Iowa and the paramutual track Running Aces in Minnesota.

Joel is the current trainer of a yearling horse owned by Sandi; Best Fear Me, prepping him for his racing in Iowa. David’s international travels allowed him to observe firsthand harness racing in Scotland, Italy, and New Zealand.

He very much enjoyed seeing the similarity and differences with American harness racing. He has been a long-time member of the United States Trotting Association, and the state harness associations of New York, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Delaware.

David’s hobbies included his horses, gardening, playing base guitar, authoring books that will probably never be published, and fishing. He would often bring a rod and reel with him even when traveling overseas. He caught tarpon and peacock bass in Venezuela, sailfish and roosterfish in Costa Rica, various catfish in Brazil, salmon and halibut in Alaska, bass and walleye in Canada.

While working in Saudi Arabia he caught many species of salt water fish from a little plastic boat in the Red Sea. The larger ones would often drag him and his boat up and down the coastline. He said he should carry his passport with him as one day he could land in Egypt.

David’s parents were his father, Kenneth, and mother, Naomi Gifford Wackford. His siblings were his eldest brother Dale (deceased), brothers Bruce, Loren and a younger brother Robert (deceased) and sisters Carolyn, Sharon, and Janice (deceased).

The Wackford family has a rich military history. Kenneth was in the Navy for 20 years; Dale, the Air Force; Bruce, the Marines; Loren, the Army. Carolyn married Clarence Colvin, a true navel mustanger who rose from seaman to full naval Captain. Janice married Chief Petty Officer Malvin Davis. Sharon married Jon Robinson, an Army Green Beret. David’s memorial will include a military gun salute to honor all of these men.

David passed away on Sunday, August 19, 2018, at Spencer Hospital in Spencer, Iowa from ischemic heart failure, complete kidney failure and pancreatic cancer.

He had a heart transplant in 2007, and multiple other medical problems either directly related to Agent Orange exposure while in Vietnam or a cascading effect from the failure of other organs.
A memorial gathering will be held 5 - 7 p.m., Thursday at Henry-Olson Funeral Home in Estherville.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to Hope Lodge, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

www.henryolsonfuneral.com