Dave Dave

Dave Dave (June 18, 1976 – July 15, 2018), born David Charles Rothenberg and later known as David Jordan Robinson, was an American conceptual artist whose father was found guilty of attempting to kill him by burning in 1983, when he was six years old.

Attempted murder David Rothenberg was six years old and living with his mother, Marie Rothenberg, in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, when his father, Charles Rothenberg, took him to California. The parents were divorced and in conflict over custody of David; after the two argued on the telephone, on the evening of March 3, 1983, at a motel in Buena Park, Charles gave his son a sleeping pill and after he fell asleep, poured kerosene on the bed and set fire to it. He left the room and watched from a telephone booth across the street while other guests rescued David.

David had third-degree burns over 90% of his body; he required finger and toe amputations and received a total of more than a hundred skin grafts. He was badly disfigured and during one grafting operation experienced brain swelling that led to seizures and other complications. Charles Rothenberg, who stated that he had originally intended to kill himself as well as his son, was sentenced in July 1983 to 13 years in prison, the maximum permitted at the time for his offenses; guidelines were changed as a result of the case. After two years he fled, but turned himself in to authorities. In 1996 he was tried for a shooting in Oakland, at which time Dave, then 19, visited him in prison; he read a statement to him in which he stated that Charles Rothenberg was "not a father but an imposter". and on a broader level in fundraising for the UC Irvine Burns Center.

Marie Rothenberg married Richard Hafdahl, a police officer who had supervised the fire investigation, and moved to Orange County, California with David. Marie Rothenberg and Mel White published an expanded version of the book in 2019 as David's Story: Burned by His Father's Rage, Healed by His Mother's Love.

Later life and career Rothenberg legally changed his name by 1992 to David Jordan Robinson. He was posthumously awarded a Hollywood F.A.M.E. award in 2018 for artistic merit.