David Gundlach was born in
Downey, California in 1955 to parents Melvin Gundlach and Marjorie (Riblet) Gundlach Swift. When Gundlach was 12, he and his widowed mother moved with her maternal grandmother, Josephine Riblet, who had suffered a stroke. He grew up in
Elkhart, Indiana and graduated in 1973 from Elkhart Memorial High School. He graduated from
Chapman College in 1979 and went on to work in the
Informational Technology department for
IBM. Hastings performed business in countries all over the world and employed over 1,500 people. Gundlach sold Hastings Direct to
Insurance Australia Group in 2006. ==Community Foundation of Elkhart County==