President & CEO
American Baptist Homes of the West
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David B. Ferguson was a pioneering leader in the senior living industry and a dedicated advocate for addressing the needs of an aging population. He joined American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW) in 1992 as executive vice president and became president and CEO in 1995, successfully saving ABHOW from near bankruptcy due to the Los Gatos community’s balloon payment that he inherited from previous leadership.
Dave’s first inclination upon joining ABHOW was to honor the organization’s two previous presidents, Harold Bottemiller and Dr. Richard Ice, by including them in photos and other marketing efforts when opportunities occurred at and for the various ABHOW communities. His overarching goal for ABHOW, though, was to reimagine its retirement communities through major redevelopment, which included creating memory-support units in every Life Plan Community and which he accomplished by 2013; the first was at Plymouth Village in Redlands, California, in July 1996. Under his direction, ABHOW also created two environmentally green Life Plan Communities.
Dave firmly believed that everyone was important and had a role to play. At ABHOW, he initiated philosophical and governmental changes that were far-reaching and innovative. He espoused diversity and inclusion for both board members and staff, including the election of ABHOW’s first chair of the board of directors, before it was “the thing to do.” Diversity and inclusion became the undergirding philosophy throughout the ABHOW organization.
In 2012, Dave was invited to join a U.S. Trade Mission to explore opportunities to develop Life Plan Communities in China. He made several trips to China to build the kind of trusted relationships that are critical to working with Chinese companies. ABHOW developed a relationship with a Chinese insurance company looking to open 15 CCRCs in China and was engaged to provide management consulting and training to help the Chinese company gain operational knowledge and establish service standards. At the same time, ABHOW expanded its own expertise in the Chinese market.
One of Dave’s most notable achievements, however, was spearheading the 2016 merger between ABHOW and Southern California Presbyterian Homes (be.group). The combined entity, named HumanGood in 2017, became the largest nonprofit senior living provider in California and the sixth-largest in the United States, with more than 3,500 staff members serving more than 10,000 residents in 84 communities across California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, and Oklahoma. Dave served as an adviser to the new entity from the completion of the merger until his retirement in February 2017 after 25 years of service.
Before joining ABHOW, Dave served as partner and senior vice president at Greystone Communities from its founding in 1988 and was responsible for Greystone’s management division until his move to ABHOW in 1992. Prior to Greystone, Dave was executive vice president at The Forum Group from 1983 to 1988, with responsibilities for construction, operations, and marketing. And from 1977 to 1983, he worked at Life Care Services Corp.—first as a community executive director, then as a regional manager, and finally as vice president and director of operations management.
Dave was instrumental in the founding of AAHSA (now LeadingAge) and played a key role in the national organization’s growth. In those early years, he was a member of the AAHSA Leadership Circle and served on its Long Term Care Financing Project, as well as on the boards of AAHSA, its Coalition Leadership for Aging Services, and AAHSA Development Corporation. Later, he served on the LeadingAge Long Term Services and Support Finance Reform Task Force and received the LeadingAge Award of Honor in 2009 for exemplary national leadership and commitment to the future of aging services. Dave was also a former chair of LeadingAge California.
A graduate of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. After college, he was drafted and decided to follow his father’s footsteps into the Navy. Dave became a Navy medic—although he really wanted to go to Officer Candidate School. After training in San Diego, Dave became captain of a PT boat and later, when ordered to Vietnam, drove a PT boat for the Navy Seals, taking them up the river at night, dropping them off, and picking them up after their assignment. It was a highly secretive, classified, and obviously dangerous duty.
Dave loved salmon fishing, golf, boating, and especially spending time at his lake house. He and Debi, his wife for 46 years, had three daughters, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Dave was a member of the Community Presbyterian Church and served as elder and clerk of session. Upon his death in 2024, HumanGood honored Dave with a Memory Support Wing at The Terraces of Los Gatos.