Obituary of David Brightman

David Brightman 68 of Mount Pleasant SC, formerly of Jackson, NJ , passed away at home
Sunday, July 15th surrounded by his loving family.
Dave was born in Somerville, NJ to Walter and Ruth Drummond Brightman. He was raised in
Long Valley NJ and lived there until his marriage in 1976. He was a 1970 graduate of West
Morris High
School and then went onto Ocean County College for a degree in business.
Dave’s career revolved around his love and expertise in electronics, first owning his own repair
business as a young man and later moving onto smaller companies. Dave continued to move
up in management in larger companies such as RCA and General Electric. In the early 1990’s
he was recruited by The Conair Corporation to take over as head of their Cuisinart Divison for
all of the United States.
In 1994 he joined Thermador/BSH, the company that manufactures Thermador, Bosch and
Gaggenau appliances. He ran the New York factory service for Thermador before BHS
acquired Thermador. In 2000 BSH promoted Dave to National Service Manager, responsible for
the entire Factory Service network in the USA and Canada. He is credited with building the
industry-best management team for 3Rd party servicers in the world. In 2004 he was tasked
with starting BSH’s own service division in San Francisco and New York markets using BSH
technicians to do the work. A new concept. He was so successful at setting up these
concepts that the next year BHS had its own Factory Service division, therefore not needing to
soley rely on 3rd party servicers.
In his time at BSH he set up 22 service centers with a business model that no other
manurfactures had been able to do. His mission was to set up successful Factory Service
without having to cancel his 3rd party servicers, therefore helping to keep those businesses
keep running. Many in the industry were skeptical but it is now the model that is copied by
companies all over. Over the years Dave built his team to 20 field service managers handling
both 3rd party servicers and Factory service.
During this time he traveled around the country and Canada and also to Europe including
Turkey where his expertise in his field was taught to others. Dave leaves behind a legacy of
service that is recognized through the industry world wide.
His intellect, humor and all around great personality will be missed by all that had the privilege
of knowing him.
Dave is survived by his wife of 45 years, Roberta, his daughters Janine Hild and her husband
Dwayne, Heather Richvalsky and her husband Damon. Seven most cherished grandchildren,
Kyle, Julia, Reese and Colin Hild, Thomas, Caroline and Michael Richvalsky.
His siblings Carol Eggert and husband Edwin, brother John and his wife Ann, brother Tad and
his wife Alicia and his sister Peg.
In addition to many nieces and nephews Dave is also survived by his loving sisters in law Rita
Rekus and her husband Roger. Edna Mangold and her husband Ricky and their children
Theresa Rekus Murray, Greg Rekus, Adrienne Padula & Meghan Perrone.