David Raymond Warth, Sr., 57, died July 21, 2017 at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. David was born June 5, 1960 in Birmingham to Raymond Hemstead Warth, Jr. and Gail Adams Warth. David graduated from Decatur High School in 1978, attended UAB, and began his life-long career with Emerson Electric Company in 1985 at the Copeland Corporation division in Hartselle. In 1999 he was promoted to Operations Manager for Copeland Asia in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. He moved his family to Suzhou, became fluent in Mandarin and continued to work and raise his family there for the next 18 years. David completed an executive MBA program from the China European International Business School in Shanghai in 2002. He was promoted to Vice President of Asia Operations & Technology for Emerson Commercial and Residential Solutions in 2016.
It was a great honor for David to be chosen as one of the torchbearers for the city of Suzhou during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He received the distinguished Emerson Climate Technologies Bob Novello Leadership Award in 2010, the Jiangsu Friendship Award in 2014, and the Friends of Suzhou Honor Award in 2015. Most recently, David was selected to attend the Nanjing, Jiangsu Development Conference representing the Suzhou Industrial Park. David loved his family, his work, riding his bicycle, cooking for and entertaining family and friends, and living and promoting a healthy lifestyle. David was a generous, bright, and charismatic person who was loved deeply by all who knew him.
He was preceded in death by his father, Raymond Hemstead Warth, Jr. He is survived by his mother, Gail Adams Warth of Decatur; his wife, Jennifer Pigott Warth, formerly of Decatur; his daughter, Alison Gail Warth of Arlington, Virginia; his son, David Raymond Warth, Jr., of Los Angeles, California; his sister, Teri Warth Hunt, and his two nieces, Camilla Elizabeth Hunt and Emily Adams Hunt, all of Decatur.
Memorial service will be July 30, 2017, at 2 p.m. at Hartselle Heritage Funeral Home, Hartselle.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the work of Dr. Colleen Kraft and the Microbiome Enrichment Program at Emory University in care of Gabrielle Stearns, 1440 Clifton Rd, NE, Suite 180, Atlanta, GA 30322 so that David’s legacy of giving to others may continue.
