David passed peacefully surrounded by his family on November 25, 2022, in Calgary Alberta.

David was born the second son of Leona and Placido Monachello in Hamilton Ontario on October 24, 1950. With his older brother John and his first cousin Bob, David thrived in Southern Ontario, immersed in Italian culture, until moving permanently to Calgary in 1975.

David has two sons, Michael (Mike) and Timothy (Tim) and an adopted daughter, Kathryn (Kate). David’s second family was formed after he met his amazing Leah Cameron in 2000. David’s children and Leah’s children Sevanne, Bevan, Ben and Jodi formed his fabulous blended second family. Leah and David are particularly proud that all their children grew up to be successful, contributing members of society. The twenty-two years David shared with Leah were his best. In 2015 David’s nephew Jeffrey and his partner Sandra moved from Vancouver to Calgary where they stayed for six years. Jeffrey added so much to our family life in Calgary, it is hard to imagine the family prior to his arrival.

David enjoyed many activities including Italian cooking, skiing, golfing, fly fishing, gardening, photography, listening to music (especially Frank Sinatra), travelling, and investigating ancient and modern civilizations and history. Leah and David travelled to Ontario, Florida, California, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Tunisia (North Africa). They enjoyed all their travels but Florida, Banff, and Calgary – where the family could get together for Sunday night dinners – were the very best. Laughs, smiles, great food and wine were the hallmarks of those times.

In recent years, David and Leah celebrated the weddings of Tim & Danielle and Mike & Elizabeth. In 2020, David and Leah were blessed with the arrival of Maevery Rea, Tim and Danielle’s daughter and David’s first grandchild.

Family was David’s priority, including his extended family – brother-in-law Glenn and his family in Calgary, and brother & sister-in-law Andre and Sydney and their families in Ottawa.

David was very fortunate to have friends for life – Mike Beattie (Fort Worth, Texas), Jeff Pinch (Owen Sound, Ontario), Doug Thorson (Calgary), and Bruce Libin (Calgary), plus a loving older brother John (Oakville, Ontario) and wonderful first cousin Bob (Burlington, Ontario) David graduated from the University of Toronto’s Michael’s College (1974) with an Honours. BSc. in Geology and Geomorphology, followed by a specialization year at Queens University in Kingston Ontario, in Sedimentary Geology (1975).

Dave’s education in earth sciences spawned his second love – geology. Amoco Canada Petroleum Ltd. recruited David in 1974 at University of Toronto, as a summer student and then as a full-time Staff Geologist in 1975, from Queens University.

After five exciting and rewarding years at Amoco as an exploration geologist, David was recruited by Clay Riddell as Paramount Resources Ltd.’s first Staff Geologist in 1980. David spent 16 wonderful years at Paramount, where he was promoted first to Chief Geologist, then to Vice President of Exploration, and was then elected to the Board of Directors.

In 1996, David was recruited as the President and CEO of a privately owned French (Bank Paribas) oil and gas company, Coparex Canada. After significantly enhancing its shareholder value, Coparex was sold to Compton Petroleum for $73 million in October 1999.

In late 1999, David founded Stylus Exploration Inc. (a private Canadian company) focused on the shallow gas fairways of northeastern Alberta. In two years, Stylus grew to the 16th busiest drilling operator in Alberta.

David co-recapitalized Winstar Resources in July 2002. With David as CEO & President, Winstar grew from a shell company to an enterprise of 125 employees, active in three overseas countries (Tunisia, Hungary, and Romania) as well as Canada with productive capacity of 2,000-2,500 boe per day, cash flowing US$30-$50 million per year by 2013. Winstar sold for stock or cash in Serinus Energy (27 million post consolidation common shares were issued as consideration for Winstar, at $3.65 USD per share at the time of closing). David worked as a Senior Manager for Serinus until his retirement in 2015. While at Winstar, David began an active managerial role in the fledgling professional association, Calgary Global Exploration Forum (CGEF). In November 2012, David promoted and managed CGEF’s first conference, “Ingenuity … a world of opportunity”. David was later recognized by CGEF as being the 2012 Volunteer of the Year.

David had it all! A wonderful family, a loving life partner in Leah Cameron, plus a terrific domestic and international oil and gas career. David knew he was lucky!

The family would like to thank Dr. Doug Thorson for his lifelong support and the doctors and practitioners of the ALS Clinic at the South Health Campus (Calgary Hospital).