Dennis Fishwick was a cab driver and a dispatcher at the Marin County Cab Company where I also work. I wish I had taken a good portrait of him. In my photo you would have seen a man with a mischievous, and delightful smile with his eyes full of laughing sparkle. Dennis always had a smile, he was always in on the greater cosmic mystery .. why worry. Of course Dennis was human and that was just the side that I saw usually only once or twice a week when our schedules coincided.
He was a short, rather round man with that grey hair that comes along with living long enough. He often came to work with his nutty paranoid Scotch Terrier named Raymond who was the antithesis of Dennis, ready to defend Dennis at the drop of a hat. Actually if you were wearing a hat you were really in trouble. Raymond didn't like hats. Dennis would laugh at everything.
What separated Dennis from almost all human beings that I have met in my 35 years of living in Marin County was will and confidence and courage to address our community and stand up against the 'powers that be' that we in California
face daily.
Dennis ran for public office more than twice. I don't know the full story. But he was an elected member of the Novato City Council at the time of the impending sale of Hamilton Air Force Base to private developers. I know he opposed much of that development for a variety of sound reasons. He ran for office again just in the last year and lost a race to serve on the Novato Sanitary District being motivated by the City's plan to outsource the running of the public Sanitation district to a private firm.
I don't know how Dennis could maintain his persistent, confident and good spirited engagement with this realm we call our government on behalf of the well-being of our community and the protection of our natural environment.
Dennis's contribution to the preservation of Marin County's quality of life stands like a golden flame. Yes I am being free with my compliments here. I hope the other towns of Marin besides Novato are as fortunate to have a citizen as dedicated as Dennis was to public service. Natural courage and knowledge that his life mattered was as intrinsic as the friendliness of his spirit. A lot of people who were your good friends here at this cab company and in your surrounding world aren't going to forget you. Your warm spirit lives with us even now.
Next time take it easy with the cheeseburgers. : )
I know I let myself get annoyed with your dispatching sometimes, I know you know, and I know we new.. that that was nothing compared to sharing a smile.
Thank You Dennis,
Guy #9
From Thank You to Marin Counties largest and only daily
Newspaper the Marin Independent Journal and journalist Rob Rogers for this tribute.
September 2, 2010
Section: Marin
Novato
News
Former Novato Councilman Dennis Fishwick dies at 64
Rob Rogers
Friends and colleagues this week mourned the death of former Novato Councilman Dennis Fishwick, a longtime Novato civic activist who died Tuesday after suffering an apparent heart attack, according to a close friend. He was 64. "He was kind of a gadfly, but he really did love Novato and cared for its quality of life," said former councilwoman Gail Wilhelm. "He was an environmentalist. He did his homework, and he frequently caught public officials making mistakes. On occasion, he would take the city to court, though he didn't win. He was an interesting fellow and politically active to the end."
Mr. Fishwick, who served on the Novato council from 1991 to 1995 and later ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Novato Sanitary District board, suffered a heart attack Tuesday after driving a limousine to a Bay Area airport, said close friend Lydia Haggerty. A spokeswoman for the Marin County Coroner's Office confirmed that Mr. Fishwick had died, but declined to provide details, saying the death had occurred in another county.
Although Mr. Fishwick had worked as a dispatcher and sometime driver for Bel Aire Cab of San Rafael, he was not driving for the company on Tuesday, operations manager Robert DeWalt said.
"He was a good guy and a nice guy," said DeWalt, who said Mr. Fishwick had worked for the company since December 2003. "People liked him here."
Born in Chicago, Mr. Fishwick attended the University of Illinois there, graduating in 1970. He moved to Novato in 1974.
Mr. Fishwick served as a member of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission and the Measures F & G Committee, helping to draft the bond that later built the city's Margaret Todd Senior Center. He also participated in the Save Scottsdale Marsh Committee and helped form the Novato Adult Soccer League.
Mr. Fishwick's career was characterized by support for youth sports, opposition to large-scale development and lengthy battles with politicians or proposals he opposed. In 1989, he led an effort to recall Novato City Council members Bill Cope, Christine Knight and Hugh Turner, but failed to gather enough signatures to support the recall.
Mr. Fishwick continued his advocacy efforts as a member of the Novato City Council. During his tenure, the council partnered with the county of Marin and the state Department of Fish and Game to purchase 31 acres of marshland around Novato's Scottsdale Pond, a measure Mr. Fishwick had long advocated.
"Dennis was a real character, someone you could never forget," said former Marin County supervisor Cynthia Murray, who served with Mr. Fishwick on the Novato council. "He liked to think of himself as a man of the people, and he was very interested in issues concerning the environment, labor and quality of life. He had a big role in saving Scottsdale Marsh, even before he came to the council."
Mr. Fishwick contested the November 2008 election that favored the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District project, arguing its results should not stand because while two-thirds of overall voters supported the train, two-thirds of Marin County voters did not.
In 2009, Mr. Fishwick ran for one of three seats on the Novato Sanitary District board, protesting what he called the "gross mismanagement of the current directors." He came in sixth, earning 12 percent of the vote. After losing the election, Mr. Fishwick spearheaded a lawsuit against one of his opponents and the Marin County registrar of voters, claiming that a number of voters living outside the Novato city limits had been unable to participate in the election.
"He was an amazing person with the energy to work on many, many issues," said San Rafael attorney Dotty LeMieux, who worked with Mr. Fishwick on his suit against the county. "He didn't shy away from a fight if he thought it was necessary, and he deserves a lot of credit for taking on issues other people didn't, and bringing them to the attention of people who could do something about it."
The Novato City Council plans to adjourn its Sept. 14 meeting in Mr. Fishwick's memory, Mayor Jeanne MacLeamy said Thursday. Funeral details are pending.
Read more Novato stories at the IJ's Novato section.
Contact Rob Rogers via e-mail at rrogers@marinij.com
No comments:
Post a Comment