Slain Wrestler Remembered at Rites in Oregon, Pennsylvania

A choir sang “Ave Maria” at a memorial service Sunday for Olympic wrestler David Schultz, who attended elementary and middle school in Ashland.

Schultz, 36, was fatally shot Jan. 26 at his home near Newtown Square, Pa., where he was coaching and training for this summer’s Olympics in Atlanta. Wrestling benefactor John E. du Pont, on whose estate Schultz was living, has been arrested in the killing.

Bob Riehm, former Southern Oregon State College wrestling coach, said Schultz was well known around Ashland, where his mother was an award-winning costume designer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Schultz returned for vacations and summers. He started a successful prep wrestling camp program at Southern Oregon State, Riehm said.

“Dave was the kind of guy that helped everybody. He coached any and everybody,” Riehm said. “That’s just kind of the way Dave was.”

The memorial service drew more than 300 people to the Southern Oregon State campus. Riehm said a number of pictures was displayed.

One depicted Schultz with President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. Schultz had one arm draped across Mrs. Reagan’s shoulder and the other in a “tight waist,” a wrestling hold, around the president, Riehm said.

“That’s just Dave,” he said.

Richard Hay of the Shakespeare Festival read a letter written by Schultz’s mother, Dorothy Jean St. Germain, in which she said: “Dave, you were too trusting.”

Schultz’s mother attended a Pennsylvania memorial service held at the same time as Sunday’s service in Ashland.