David Taylor Kilminster

David (Dave) Kilminster, 89, went to be with the Lord on October 28, 2025 in his retirement residence at The Marshes of Skidaway Island in Savannah, GA where he had been living since January 2024. He is survived by his daughter, Kathi (Ralph) Viehman of Bluffton, SC, his granddaughter Claire Viehman of Pooler GA and his late wife’s niece Suzanne (Clark) Nickerson of Canton, GA. He was predeceased by his wife of 61 years of happy marriage Catherine (Murphy) Kilminster, parents Harry and Jean (Livingstone) Kilminster of Chatham, NJ, his younger brother Alan Kilminster of Ft. Collins, CO and many relatives on the Kilminster and Livingstone sides of his ancestry.

Dave was born and grew up in Chatham, NJ. After high school graduation, he attended Bucknell University, majoring in Electrical Engineering. After one year, he transferred to the EE program at the Newark College of Engineering. Two years later, he realized that EE was not for him and withdrew. Immediately, the Selective Service notified him that he was near the top of the draft list. Not wanting to become an Infantryman, he enlisted instead. After basic training at Ft. Dix, NJ, he was assigned to a research lab at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD where he remained for the rest of his enlistment and for fourteen more years as a US Army civilian employee. He finally completed his college degree at The Johns Hopkins University during this time.

After serving a three-year enlistment in the US Army, Dave became a civilian employee at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD serving as a Systems Engineer engaged in Research and Development studies on Army weapon systems.

While at APG, he met Cathy Murphy on a blind dinner date hosted by a co- worker and his wife. Nine weeks later Dave proposed and seven months later they were married. During their married life, they had one daughter. They were closing in on 62 years of happy marriage when Cathy unexpectedly passed away in 2022.

During the 17 years at APG, his assignments were to characterize the radiation environment produced by nuclear warheads and by experimental research reactors. Finally, this line of work dried up and Dave left the government employment ranks and went to work for the Martin Marietta Corporation. His area of interest transitioned into quantifying the advantages of emerging technologies on the effectiveness of US Army weapon systems. This work took him to jobs from Orlando, FL to Baltimore, MD and eventually to Pittsfield, MA. This was fun work but at age 60, Dave took retirement and he and Cathy moved to southern York County, PA to retire.

Long about this time Y2K became the national concern and Dave returned to the work force to serve as a Project Manager for a group certifying that all the software programs at Medicare Headquarters in Baltimore would be functional after Y2K. This effort ended on 1/1/2000 with all the programs working. Unfortunately, this job ended at the tick of the clock at midnight 12/31/1999. Again Dave went back to retirement, but not for long.

Cathy was working for a Registered Investment Advisor in Baltimore and the owner asked Dave to come work for them as none of the employees were technology or computer savvy. As the owner put it, Dave was the "Go-To Guy" for problems that needed solving and no one else had the knowledge to answer the questions. These were fun times and Dave and Cathy worked there until they were 78 years old. Then they decided to travel. Bus, train, fly, cruise, drive. It didn't matter as long as it was fun. That was until COVID shut everything down.

In 2017, they got tired of the cold and snow and living in the Northeast so they moved to the City of Canton in Cherokee County Georgia. After a few years, Cathy's health began to deteriorate and in 2022 she died unexpectedly one night. Dave lived on in Canton but realized that a single person of advanced age living alone is not a good idea so he did an Internet search and found The Marshes of Skidaway Island. After a “Is it really that good?” visit by their daughter and one by Dave, he decided that the lifestyle this facility offered would fulfill all his living requirements for his final years. And it did!