DAP THACH, 48, WELL-KNOWN GRAVENHURST ACCOUNTANT DIES

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Community members are saddened by the sudden and “tragic” death of another prominent business person in town.

Dap Thach died at his home early yesterday morning.

He was 48.

The popular local accountant had just gotten up about 8 a.m. when he collapsed and died, said his father-in-law Sang Park.

Thach had just opened his new downtown DTA Accounting office before Christmas and was the lead sponsor for the recent Coldest Night of Year walk at which he handed out blue tuques at his office to donors and his family donated more than $1,000 to this year’s walk according to a Gravenhurst Against Poverty website posting.

He was well-known around town for his genial personality, generous spirit — and good humour.

And he was right the middle of his busy income tax season.

His body was taken to Toronto for autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

But family and friends suspect a heart attack.

“I’m just shocked. What can I say? I just don’t know what to say.

“My daughter’s without a husband.”

And her daughter’s without a father.

Thach, a loving father and husband, was home with his wife of 13 years, Dianne, and their daughter Sophie, aged 2.

“He was such a hard worker,” said Park, who owns Anne’s Variety on the main street and said Thach hadn’t been ill.

He was diabetic and had appeared to have lost a lot of weight in recent years.

But other than that he showed no signs of heart problems, said Park.

Generous and genial, Dap Thach was well-known around Gravenhurst as a loving father and husband and a hard-working accountant with a sense of humour.

Thach is the son of Bo and Ha Thach, who came to Canada from Vietnam as “Boat People” in the late 1970s.

United Church members in Gravenhurst and Walker’s Point sponsored the family, said Thach’s long-time and good friend Harvey Bradley.

“He was very precious to us. We’re trying cope. It’s not easy.

“His poor parents.”

“They’re devastated as you can expect,” said another family friend.

The Thachs, who own the China House restaurant on the main street across from the Sawdust City Brewery, had spent a year in a refugee camp in Hong Kong before emigrating with their two young sons born in 1973 and 1976.

Thach’s younger brother Duc, aged 45, died two years ago of cancer. He worked at Casino Rama in the IT department and helped his big brother in the accounting business and in his many other varied endeavours.

The two were very close, said Bradley, adding Duc’s loss affected Dap.

“It’s hard to accept,” said Bradley, who kept in touch and often had lunch with Thach, seeing him only last week.

“He was always working and in to something.”

After buying and renovating the large Ing Building, which went on the market next to the Opera House last year, “he was finally getting a really beautiful office for himself on the main street,” said Bradley.

And this winter Thach was busy fixing up another big housing property on David Street.

“All of that work may have been too much,” surmised Park.

A former BIA president, Thach began his business career after high school at GHS (where he was a basketball star) in back of his parents’ restaurant.

An avid hockey fan and still active player, he sold goalie equipment as a sideline for decades and coached girl’s and women’s hockey as well.

He also volunteered in his spare time.

An avid hockey fan and still active player, he sold goalie equipment as a sideline for decades and coached girl’s and women’s hockey as well.

Fellow accountants Theresa Morley and Irene McHarg-Coey knew him well, often attending courses together and sharing clients.

“He did a lot for the community,” said Morley of Morley and Associates.

“I knew him well and liked him. We traded a few clients.

“I’m very distressed for his family.”

Thach was a certified accountant and could do most accounting things, Morley said, but he didn’t finish his courses to become a Chartered Public Accountant.

“I’m so sorry to hear. I can’t believe it,” said McHarg-Coey. “He was a very good friend, but we haven’t seen each other much lately because of COVID.”

Friend Mary Tompsett was also saddened at Thach’s passing.

She and her late husband, Bart, had picked up the immigrant Thachs at the airport in Toronto more than 40 years ago.

“I don’t know why they asked us to go down and pick them up,” she said. “Because we were just one of many who helped them.”

The Tompsetts owned another home in town that they put the family up in after her sister moved out.

“They were lovely people, so nice,” said Tompsett, “especially the little boys, Dap and Duc.”

Tompsett said she has kept in touch with the family over the intervening decades and with her own son, Mudge, who often bought some of his goalie equipment from Thach.

Thach’s passing follows the death earlier this year of Chris Lewis, 52, another prominent community member and Lions leader.

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