Gerry Czamanske speech about Dave Stevenson 2/21/09
My name is Gerry Czamanske. Dave's wife, Fran, asked me to extend her greetings to all of you. A few years after Dave's death, Fran moved to a property outside of Bend, OR where she could stable her horse. She continues to enjoy herself with hiking, x-country and downhill skiing, and kayaking. She and Dave had three children, two of which still live in CA and other in BC.
I don't know many of you, but I am honored to say a few words about David Stevenson. Some of you may have known him better than I did, but probably not longer, and may wish to add to what I have to say, as my relationship with him was largely outside the sphere of the AFA. I knew Dave over a period of about 47 years, starting with my arrival at Stanford as a graduate student in geology in 1957 and Dave's arrival to teach in the metallurgy department (later to be named material sciences). In the late 50's he supervised a bit of custom piton manufacturing for my Sierran climbing, while in the late 70's I audited one of his thermodynamics courses. Our relationship could well be described as intermittent. I left the area for 7 years during the 1960’s, we reconnected and for a time our families gathered on occasion, I was divorced, and even in this area our lives diverged somewhat, but the connection was always there. I came to know and love Dave most deeply during his later years as we ran and raced together and discussed his apparent loss of stamina, his reluctant acceptance of the diagnosis of mesothelioma, cancer of the outer lining of the lung,and his prolonged search via books, treatments, and institutions to arrest or cure his disease. You all know of the special camaraderie that develops as the miles flow past.
I always found Dave to be an extremely humble and open man. I vividly recall going to lunch with him at the Stanford Faculty Club where his casual attire set him well apart from his peers. He was also unassuming about his athletic achievements. He had been captain of the Amherst swim team, but running and the triathlon were to be his future. From the outset, I felt that Dave and the triathlon were meant for each other, and he proved that to be the case. In addition to his competitions, Dave and Fran spent many years skiing, mountain climbing, and surfing together. In fact, one of the last times I saw Dave was when I drove him down to pay a last visit to one of his old haunts, Steamer Lane, in Santa Cruz
As confirmed by his wife, Fran, an enigmatic aspect of Dave's success on the track or in triathlon competition was his ability to compete at the highest level with the most modest preparation. We might be putting in a few road miles and Dave would casually announce preparation to send in an entry for a triathlon competition in Finland or Germany. Probably he devoted most of his preparation to his weakest event, the cycling, and by any standard his bike was quite ordinary. Lance Armstrong's statement, "It's not about the bike" surely applied to Dave. The ocean swim and marathon seemed almost taken for granted! I have no idea how many triathlons Dave competed in over the years and with what success. However, his metric against the ultimate challenge, the Kona Ironman is stellar.
He competed in 5 Kona races between 1986 and 1990. In '86 he was 4th in the 55-59 age category and in '87 he came in 3rd. On moving to the 60-64 year age category, he commenced a string of three, consecutive 1st-place finishes. His time of 11:23:26 in '89 set a new age group record which lasted 13 years, until it was broken by 9 minutes in 2002.
As for his numerous road and track accomplishments I will add little. He competed for the West Valley Track Club and achieved much as a Masters runner, both individually and as a member of relay teams. I have always considered that his most memorable record was in the 2000 m steeplechase. He had been the U.S. Masters champion in the 3000 m steeplechase at ages 52, 53, and 61. In 1989 at age 60, the year of his best time at Kona, he set a U.S. Masters record of 7:40:10 for the 2000 m steeplechase, a record which was finally bettered by 3 seconds in 2006.
We lost Dave much too soon at age 65. I had planned to have him and Fran as close friends for many more years.