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Remembering Dave Stewart (by Bob Jones)
Dave Stewart, one of British Columbia's best known and most beloved outdoor writers, departed for the Happy Fishing Grounds on 4 November 2004. Born in Revelstoke on 1 July 1919, Dave was raised on a homestead at Craigellachie, overlooking the Thompson River, where his father had a horse logging operation. The first fish he recalls catching was a tiny cutthroat trout from nearby Gorge Creek. He was four years old.
A railway telegrapher and train dispatcher for over 30 years, Dave also did stints as a truck driver, professional musician, commercial fisherman, writer, editor and photographer. With thousands of magazine and newspaper articles to his credit, he was one of the most prolific writers in Canada.
Dave's writing career started in early 1953 with an outdoor column in the Nelson Daily News, then the Revelstoke Review when he was transferred to that town with the railroad. He started writing for outdoor magazines, and editors snapped up his material because he obviously knew what he was writing about. Over the years he also wrote for fiction, general interest and trade magazines, and even sold a story to True Romances "just to see if I could do it."
Dave started writing for Northwest Digest when the late Art Downs was publishing it in Quesnel. This was about the time its name changed from the Cariboo Digest. It later became B.C. Digest, then BC Outdoors, where he was on staff until reaching age 65. He continued freelancing and moved his popular Last Cast column to Island Fisherman in 2002.
Dave and Joyce Albiston were married in 1939, and raised a family of five: sons David, Gary, Wayne and Ian, and daughter Robyn. Joyce succumbed to Alzheimer's disease in the early 1990s. Dave spent his remaining years at Skull Flats, near Savona, with his companion, Elizabeth, who shared his love of writing, fishing, hunting and the outdoors.
A memorial service was held on 13 November 2004, and Dave's ashes were scattered on the banks of his beloved Thompson River. He left specific instructions that they be scattered on the bank and not in the water, as he didn't want to go through Hell's Gate.
He will truly be missed.
[by Bob Jones, Island Fisherman Magazine, March, 2005]
A railway telegrapher and train dispatcher for over 30 years, Dave also did stints as a truck driver, professional musician, commercial fisherman, writer, editor and photographer. With thousands of magazine and newspaper articles to his credit, he was one of the most prolific writers in Canada.
Dave's writing career started in early 1953 with an outdoor column in the Nelson Daily News, then the Revelstoke Review when he was transferred to that town with the railroad. He started writing for outdoor magazines, and editors snapped up his material because he obviously knew what he was writing about. Over the years he also wrote for fiction, general interest and trade magazines, and even sold a story to True Romances "just to see if I could do it."
Dave started writing for Northwest Digest when the late Art Downs was publishing it in Quesnel. This was about the time its name changed from the Cariboo Digest. It later became B.C. Digest, then BC Outdoors, where he was on staff until reaching age 65. He continued freelancing and moved his popular Last Cast column to Island Fisherman in 2002.
Dave and Joyce Albiston were married in 1939, and raised a family of five: sons David, Gary, Wayne and Ian, and daughter Robyn. Joyce succumbed to Alzheimer's disease in the early 1990s. Dave spent his remaining years at Skull Flats, near Savona, with his companion, Elizabeth, who shared his love of writing, fishing, hunting and the outdoors.
A memorial service was held on 13 November 2004, and Dave's ashes were scattered on the banks of his beloved Thompson River. He left specific instructions that they be scattered on the bank and not in the water, as he didn't want to go through Hell's Gate.
He will truly be missed.
[by Bob Jones, Island Fisherman Magazine, March, 2005]
Submitted on January 29, 2005 in By David.
