David F. Warren

David F. Warren of Havre de Grace, Maryland, passed away on Aug. 25, 2018. He was an active member of Holy Communion Lutheran Church in Fallston Maryland and several non-profit self-help organizations in Harford County. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Jan; two children, Rex Everett (Rett) Warren and Kimball Leigh (Kim) Shedleski, and two grandchildren, Frank and Joseph Shedleski.

Dave grew up on a farm outside of Blytheville, Arkansas and graduated from University of Missouri in 1961 with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. He worked briefly for the Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal as a staff photographer before going to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC as a public information specialist. In 1963, he married Jan Kimball of Stanberry, Missouri. Their son Rett is a Strength and Conditioning coach at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and lives in the Baltimore area. Their daughter Kim is an adjunct math instructor at Harford Community College. She and her husband Martin live in Joppa, MD with their 2 sons.

Mr. Warren’s first job at USDA involved travelling the country photographing agricultural research projects and farming operations for publications and news stories about agriculture. In 1976, he was photo editor and contributing photographer for the bicentennial tabletop edition of the Yearbook of Agriculture, “The Face of Rural America.” He then produced a series of audiovisual presentations called “People on the Farm” to help explain to ‘city folks’ the origin of their food. He then became chief of the USDA’s News Division, and also wrote speeches for two Secretaries of Agriculture, Mike Espy and Dan Glickman.

David retired in 1997 after 36 years with the federal government. That year, they bought a minivan and put 30,000 miles on it in the first 12 months. They crossed the country, east coast to west coast and back, at least three times. Their major trips, outside of the continental United States include visits to England, Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Ireland and the Panama Canal.

Dave loved movies and television, so he and Jan took advantage of the fact that there are a lot of movies and TV filming in the Washington, DC area and signed up as ‘movie extras.’ If you look real quick, you can see both of them in the background in scenes in Syriana, Head of State, A Dirty Shame, and a couple of episodes of West Wing.

In 2006 they moved into a virtually maintenance-free condo in the historic city of Havre de Grace, Maryland which sits at the confluence of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay. On a good day, from their deck, if you look through the trees, you can see the Bay.

Visitation will take place at McComas Funeral Home, 1317 Cokesbury Rd., Abingdon, MD 21009, between 4 and 6pm on Sun. Sept. 2, 2018.

A Celebration of Life, including many of Dave’s favorite songs and prayers will be held on Mon. Sept.3, 2018 at 11am at Holy Communion Lutheran Church, 621 Old Fallston Rd., Fallston, MD 21047.


In lieu of flowers please make a donation to:
Holy Communion Lutheran Church or
P.O. Box 55
621 Old Fallston Rd.
Fallston, MD 21047



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