Dave Watson

I didn’t know Dave Waston died. I found out he was sick several months ago. I thought about how I should email him several times. I never did. It’s not that I felt particularly weird about doing so, but I just never did it. He had colon cancer and was only 45 years old.

Dave collaborated with us on Webnames.ca’s first newsletter The Server Room. Rupert Lindsay, our former sales rep, brought him on board. They had been friends since high school. Dave was brilliant, in an electric kind of way … he was always buzzing. He was also hilarious.

Dave used to show up to our Gastown office puffing a nicotine inhaler with ziploc bags of vitamins and supplements. Wearing a ballcap and iPod he looked like a teenage boy from behind. When I met Dave, his health was getting worse, but he was fiercely motivated about combating the downward turn.

Why he decided to take on the Webnames gig I’m not sure. Maybe because of his relationship with Rupert, maybe because as a gifted writer he could turn out a gem of an article quickly and the extra income wouldn’t hurt. Whatever the reason, I really, really enjoyed working with him. Heck, it was far and away the best thing about that newsletter for me.

Talking to Dave, exchanging ideas and research with him, made me feel like a smarter, better person. In addition to being super smart, Dave was incredibly humble. I would edit his articles when they came in – the irony! me editing tech articles by Dave Watson – and he would give me props. Crazy. One of the articles Dave wrote for us about planning a small business website started with the words, “Flashy? Trashy? Hip and sassy?”. I hated it and loved it at the same time. It stuck in my mind for months. I would sing it as a little song and use it randomly in conversation. It still makes me laugh.

I learned a lot from him, but what abides is a realization that you can be yourself in the world. Although he seemed to be enjoying writing less by the time I met him – he was in the process of moving to Sechelt and extricating himself from some of his journalism gigs – he made me feel like I could make a career out of doing something I enjoy if I just was true to myself. He also just made me happy because he knew something about everything – from Hello Kitty to the Talking Heads to where to buy the best organic produce.

I’m sad that Dave is gone and am thankful I got to know him a little. He was an original, gifted and good person. I wish I had let him know what a pleasure it was to work with him.

   

(Illustration by Rod Filbrant, from Dave Watson’s “Dot Comment” column in the Georgia Straight.)

Note: While he was fighting cancer Dave wrote a five part article series called Rambling into Eternity. It can be found alongside his obituary on the Georgia Straight’s website.