LAKE, DAVID J.
OCEAN GROVE – Final respects for Ocean Grove Police Chief David J. Lake, who died Monday [August 23, 1971] serving his community, were paid yesterday afternoon in a crowded St. Paul’s Church here. The town mourns the ex-Marine who joined the police force in 1953, gave total dedication and talent to his duties here, and Ocean Grove will miss him.
Officiating clergymen for the service were Rev. William R. McClelland, pastor; Rev. John D. Merwin, associate pastor, and Rev. Louis W. Mitchell, Ocean Grove trustee.
Police chiefs serving as pallbearers were A. LeRoy Ward, Neptune; John Foster, Little Silver; Raymond Mass, Shrewsbury; William Millington, Sea Girt; Charles Hornbostal, Monmouth Beach, and Ellsworth Schug, Prudential Life Insurance Co.
Viewing took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the Ocean Grove Memorial Home. An honorary guard of Ocean Grove police stood at the bier night and day. Acting Police Chief Kent Cole in the Ocean Grove police car will escort the body to Plymouth, Pa., the former home town of Chief Lake. Friends there will pay final respects today (Friday) when viewing is from 2 to 4 P.M. and 7 to 9 P.M. in the Harry Davis Funeral Home, 63 Gaylord Avenue, Plymouth, Pa. There will be a graveside service tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11 o’clock in the Oak Lawn Cemetery, Hanover Township, Pa.
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association offices were closed yesterday, the day of the funeral, ordered by President George L. Hergesheimer. All American flags were ordered flown at half-mast.
Chief Lake, age 60, collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack Monday morning [August 23, 1971] as he pursued and grappled with a suspect in a larceny investigation. The suspect, a hotel employee, was leading him to his room where he had hidden items stolen from the Seaside Hotel. The suspect bolted as he and the chief got out of the car on Spray Avenue. The chief halted the suspect temporarily with a tackle but he collapsed in the ensuing struggle. The suspect, who is known, got away.
The chief, who had suffered a heart attack a little over a year ago, had returned to duty the end of last summer. A short time later he spearheaded the community participation for the visit here of President Richard M. Nixon in October. President Nixon praised Chief Lake for his efforts and for the community he represented. Chief Lake was also the recipient last year of the first “Citizen of the Year” award by the Ocean Grove Businessmen, Inc.
A member of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, he was a non-commissioned officer in the suicide squadron of Edson’s Raiders at Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Samoa. He carried the Marine motto to his duty here—“Semper Fidelis,” always faithful.
Chief Lake was a member of the American Federation of Police, International Association of Chiefs of Police, New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police and the Monmouth County Association of Chiefs of Police.
He was a member of Plymouth (Pa.) Lodge 332, F&AM; St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and a former member of Pilgrim Congregational Church (Plymouth); Hannah-Crosman Post 2233, Veterans of Foreign Wars; Asbury Park Elks Lodge 128, and Irem Temple, AAONMB, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in which he was a noble.
Chief Lake lived at 120 Broadway with his wife, Mrs. Dorothy J. Lake, and their daughter, Gail. Another daughter, Dottie, resides in Hartford, Conn. Also surviving are a brother, Edward, Plymouth, and two sisters, Miss Margaret Lake and Mrs. Florence Weldon, here.