David Klein
Photo credit: Jill Mangold

Yelm visitor & prominent Kentucky citizen David Klein passed away. Honoring the life of my younger brother –

KLEIN, DAVID NATHAN, 57, died December 29, 2013 at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, TX.

He was born and raised in Louisville, a 1974 graduate of Waggener High School in Louisville and attended Ohio Wesleyan University and the University of Kentucky.

David was a an employee of Bank of Louisville from 1978-2002 and in 1998 was appointed the bank’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) & Executive Board Director until the company’s sale to BB&T in 2002.

David is the most recent past Board Chair for the Jewish Community of Louisville, a Board Member of Gilda’s Club Louisville, and a Founding Board Chair of the Louisville, KY. Metro Parks Foundation (2005) and their Chairman Emeritus.

He was a member of Congregation Adath Jeshurun, Jewish Community Center of Louisville, LiveStrong, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program, Advisory Board volunteer of Meghan’s Mountain Charitable Foundation, Inc., and a local cycling enthusiast who served on the Eva Bandman Community Park Steering Committee of the Louisville Sports Commission.

He was also a former member of the Advisory Council of Actors Theater of Louisville, Jewish Hospital of Louisville Foundation Board, 1994 Leadership Louisville graduate, 2001 Corporate Campaign chairman for the Louisville Fund for the Arts, funded the Patient Navigator program of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, Past President of the Louisville Visual Arts Assn., and was the 2013 keynote speaker at the KFC Yum! Center as the Kentucky Derby Julep Ball honoree.
Click here for the television interview prior to his presentation.

He is preceded in death by his mother, Elaine Klein, on July 31, 2013.

David is survived by daughters Erin Hilsenrad and Kathryn Klein with former wife Jodi Redmon Klein, grandson Luke Hilsenrad, father Bertram Weiss Klein, brothers Stephen (Yael) Klein of Yelm, Washington and Richard (Beth) Klein, former wife Jill Mangold and stepson Will Pfeffer all from Louisville and a number of nieces and nephews, and his two dogs Porsche and Ridley.

The family would like to extend a thank you and gratitude to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Dr. Michael Kommor and team at Kentucky Baptist Hospital
[see video below of David with Dr. Kommer].

Funeral services will be 2:00 p.m. Sunday, January 5, 2014 at The Temple, with burial to follow in The Temple Cemetery, Louisville, KY.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be sent to:
– Gilda’s Club of Louisville,
– Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – Kentucky & Southern Indiana Chapter,
– Elaine & Julia Klein Landscape Memorial Fund at The Temple,
– Jewish Family Career Services,
– Congregation Adath Jeshurun.

– David Klein’s Obituary published in the Louisville newspaper
Read more in the Louisville, KY Courier-Journal (A Gannett Company).

– “David Klein’s Obituary published in the Yelm, WA newspaper”
Read more from the Nisqually Valley News.

– “Cancer survivor David Klein shares his personal story, in support of the new Charles and Mimi Osborn Cancer Center at Baptist Health.”
Click here for the Summer 2013 video.

– David Klein’s Obituary in the Voice-Tribune (Louisville, KY.)
Read more