A LEGACY OF FAITH, SERVICE, & STEWARDSHIP
My father, Rev. David A. Chantelau.
Dad passed peacefully on November 18, 2025. In many ways, though, we began losing him nearly three years earlier to Alzheimer’s disease. There were moments of clarity and flashes of “normal Dad”, but they were increasingly surrounded by confusion, sadness, frustration, and anger. Alzheimer’s is a devastating illness, one that deserves greater awareness, compassion, and research.
But the disease does not define his story.
He was an ordained minister, musician, counselor, teacher, spiritual leader, brother, husband, and father. He dedicated his life to his faith in Jesus Christ and left our family a profound spiritual inheritance, one built on conviction, service, and community.
Part of that legacy began in 1978, when he accepted the role of Minister of Music and Senior Adults at Immanuel Baptist Church in Richmond, VA. It was there that he and my mother founded The Evergreens, a ministry designed to bring senior adults together in faith, fellowship, and purpose.
The Evergreens continues to thrive even today.
What made the program remarkable wasn’t simply that it gathered people, it strengthened them. It fostered spiritual growth, meaningful relationships, continued learning, joyful movement, and enduring purpose. Long before “wellness” became a cultural focus, The Evergreens embodied it — integrating faith with every dimension of life.
That model deeply influences IRON-CANOPY.
What we call The Evergreen Effect is the belief that strength, faith, community, and growth do not expire with age. They compound. They deepen. They endure.
IRON-CANOPY exists, in many ways, because of what my father built, a living example that true strength is spiritual, physical, emotional, and communal.
His legacy is not just remembered. It is carried forward.
A LEGACY OF FAITH, SERVICE, & STEWARDSHIP
My grandfather, Everett R. Chantelau
The legacy that helped shape IRON-CANOPY continues with my grandfather, known to our family simply as Pop-Pop.
He was born on June 28, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, to Diedrich and Marie Chantelau, and passed away on October 23, 2008, in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, at the age of 94 from dementia. Throughout his long life he faithfully carried many roles: brother, husband, grandfather, teacher, counselor, and spiritual leader.
For 20 years, my grandfather worked as a machinist for Fischer & Porter Company. Even after retirement, he remained active, continuing to work with my uncle at, Chantelau Inc. Work, however, was never just about earning a living for him it was about diligence, integrity, and serving others. Like my father, my grandfather’s life was deeply rooted in his faith in Jesus Christ. His ministry was expressed through years of service in his church and through his prison ministry, where he dedicated himself to encouraging and guiding men who needed hope and direction.
He married my grandmother, Florence Howard, our beloved Mom-Mom, on June 11, 1941, in Brooklyn. Together they built a life centered on faith, family, and service. They were truly a gift from God, and the example they set continues to influence generations.
My grandfather also had a lifelong passion for health and wellness. He studied and believed in the concept of biorhythms the idea that our lives move through rhythmic cycles of physical, emotional, and intellectual energy. He even created detailed biorhythm charts for family members, carefully mapping the sine waves by hand.
Long before the modern wellness movement, he was also a believer in whole foods and proper micronutrients (vitamins & minerals). He loved visiting his local health food store and often made his own peanut butter there, small habits that reflected his belief that caring for the body was part of responsible stewardship of life.
Today, his influence continues to guide me. The principles he lived by, faith, discipline, curiosity about wellness, and service to others, remain a part of the foundation that IRON-CANOPY is built upon.
His legacy lives on.