David E. Cedervall

Born in East Chicago, IN. Parents were Salvation Army officers. Lived with them in four appointments in Indiana and Michigan, then went with them and two sisters to overseas appointment in the Philippines. After five years, returned to USA and lived in Iowa where he graduated from North Des Moines High School, met and fell in love with his future wife, Rose Marie Hoppes, they both went to Vennard College where he earned BA majoring in Bible and minoring in Christian Social Service. Eight months after they wed, they entered The Salvation Army School for Officers' Training in Chicago, IL. They were both ordained and commissioned as officers in 1969.

Their early appointments were as pastors of corps (churches) and responsible also for service to the needy, elderly, youth and other through various programs at four centers in Indiana.

Because of his interests, involvement and specialized training, David was called to National Headquarters (then in New York City) to work on "The War Cry," "The Young Soldier", and "SAY", the last two were youth publications for which he was the editor. Seven years in New Brunswick,NJ and 14 at five Ohio pastorates followed. He also served on the support team sending groups of volunteers from Cleveland to Honduras following Hurricane Mitch. Then they served in the Territorial Literary Department in West Nyack, NY, another short pastorate at Niagara Falls corps, and their final three years as co-coordinators of Salvation Army correspondence courses for prisoners throughout the NE United States.

They were retired in 2009, two months before his latest book was published. He also authored a small book of Salvation Army wordsearch puzzles two decades ago. This book is no longer in print, though some used but with puzzles not done may be available.

He wrote hundreds of articles for Salvation Army publications, including his first published in The Philippines and from that country. He loved helping with the Philippine "War Cry,"as a teenager, mostly proofreading the English articles. High School newspaper and yearbooks were produced with his help. He was the feature editor for North High's newspaper, and wrote a front page piece on the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy just after it took place. A poem entitled "Books" earned him publication in the "Anthology of High School Poetry." In his freshman and sophomore years, his imaginative and often humorous articles printed in "The Bamboo Telegraph" earned him a second place award for writing (which was a complete works of Shakespeare one volume collection).

He wrote many news articles for local newspapers where the Cedervalls were stationed, and did a "Daily Prayer" feature for a year in the local daily newspaper of Rushville, IN. The international "Officer Magazine" published many articles from his pen. "Youth for Christ" magazine and "Christian Conjuror" were two magazines outside of The Salvation Army that published articles and poetry from him. More of his poetry appeared in a softcover book of works by American Salvation Army poets.

Seven of his articles on "Parables from Star Trek" were published in this country, and four of those reprinted in Canada. He was a contributing writer to "Historical Dictionary of The Salvation Army," and "The Master Called, The Story of Alfred Gilliard," a biography of another Army writer and editor who helped train David with his pre-officer column in "The War Cry" entitled "Cadet Cameos," for which he was only publicly acknowledged as writer after his last column and when he was commissioned as a lieutenant, and " A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Army" a collection of humor in that organization.

An article he wrote for "Good News," the NE Territorial news-magazine of The Army, won recognition and an award from The Evangelical Press Association. It shared experiences of his wife and his own while serving to support victims of Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Pascagoula and Pas Christian, Mississippi. Part of the joy in writing that article was being able to use the state's name so often after learning to spell it in a childish singsong chant, "M I crooked letter, crooked letted, I crooked letter, crooked letter, I humpback humpback I."

An honor of the highest level within The Salvation Army is the "Order of the Founder." When he was on the national publications staff, he produced a very official-looking "Order of the Flounder" certificate made out to him, which noted his tendency to take a long time and many words to get to his point as he wrote. He displayed that on the wall of his office space, with a very official looking seal and tri-color ribbon which he saved when the document upon which it first was affixed was put into the wastebasket.

A Lt.-Commander in the Klingon ship/trek fan club "IKV Doomslayer," he became ship's chaplain and actually performed a wedding at a related annual "peace-conference." The wedding party was made up of Scottish and American participants in Klingon uniforms or in Scottish kilts and apparel. Part of the wedding ceremony included his sharing of advice to the couple in the actual Klingon language which has been developed for Trek film and episode usage. Afterward, one attendee shared how much she enjoyed and admired his glottal stops which are part of many words in Klingon.

Also a heritage member of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians, he does gospel magic presentations and ventriloquism. Currently he is the president of SAROL (Salvation Army Retired Officers' Association), the first organization of its kind in the USA. Evangeline Booth, daughter of Salvation Army founder William Booth, helped get that organization chartered and into existence. After the death of his wife in 2010, he became involved with several support groups. Most recently he has focused on membership and eventually "facilitator-in-training" status in Griefshare, a Christian support group for those who have lost a spouse, child or other loved one to death.

He loves to read books and magazines of many kinds, favorites are faith-based, science fiction, time-travel, history, poetry, the international church and its involvement in the lives of believers and non-believers, fiction and more. Favorite authors are Harry Read (latest book "No Heart More Tender,") C. S. Lewis, Samuel (Mark Twain) Clemens, Brennan Manning, John Jakes, Peter David, Isaac Asimov (whom he saw walking past the window of a coffee/croissant shop in NYC), Garrison Keillor, Joseph Girzone, Bob Hostetler, Sallie Chesham, Jack Finney, Dag Hammarskjold,Billy Graham, Check Yee, Robert Fulghum and many more. He told a writers' conference group as guest lecturer, "You almost certainly cannot become a good writer unless you are a great reader, not limiting yourself to one or just a few kinds of literature, and not excluding writers with whom you do not agree."

Through all of his involvements, his humor, ventriloquism, writing and other of the wide variety outlined above, his desire is to "communicate the love of God and His eagerness to help those who turn to Him."

Though he cannot promise immediate response he offers his e-mail address to anyone interested in getting in contact with him. It is fil57@optonline.net. He is also on Facebook.