On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 11:33 +0000, greenjersey@ntlworld.com wrote:
> Does anybody out there remember my late clubmate Don Howarth? He moved
> to the Bay Area from Southport England in 1963. In 1966 he went to
> watch the World's on the Nurburgring then to Munich to collect a
> Beemer that he shipped back to the US. He was always a bit flash! In
> the UK he had a Cinelli and when I visited him in the US he was riding
> a Masi. I recall that he spoke of The Bike Barb and a particular
> friend Fritz Liedel who won the Tour of Marin.
I forwarded Ray's message to my friend Owen Mullholland. Owen and Ray
corresponded. Owen mailed me this, with his permission to share with
this list. I think some might like reading it. Glad this worked out.
> I first met Don Howarth in 1963. We were both members of the San
> Francisco Wheelmen, but he was an obviously experienced "senior" rider
> (as we called anyone 18 and over then) several years older than I. I
> was 17 in '63 and became dependent on Don for rides to many races,
> something he was very generous about. He was well known for his
> end-of-race kick and I have few pictures of him winning road sprints.
> On training rides he would sometimes wear his Portsmouth CC jersey.
> (He had a club jersey from England, but I might be getting the club
> wrong.)
>
> He lived in a very nice top floor apartment in the northwest part of
> San Francisco, one that had a view out over the ocean. Later, he
> married an American lady, Eva, and they bought a house in Oakland on
> the east side of San Francisco Bay. He worked as an architect for
> Safeway, a chain of grocery stores.
>
> Sad to say, "Il n'est plus parmi nous." He carried a defective
> chromosome that kicked in around the time he turned 30. He slowly
> died of kidney failure. He knew it was coming and that knowledge must
> surely have been a cloud over his life, but you'd never have known it
> to be with him. The last time I saw him was at the 1984 Olympic Road
> Race near Los Angeles. We sat on the hillside overlooking the final
> climb and got to see Steve Bauer catch Alexi Grewal. Don had a tube
> coming out his nose and it was taped to his face and went into a pack
> on his back. We both acted as though nothing was wrong. The most I
> could bring myself to do was look him in the eyes really hard when we
> shook hands "goodbye". We both knew it was forever. I got no hint
> that he wanted someone fawning over him so we just did the
> stiff-upper-lip thing. I still don't know what I would have done
> differently, or better, in that situation, but surely there must have
> been something.
>
> He had a good friend, more his age, named Steve Pfeifer. He can be
> reached at mazdaman@mail.com
>
> If I can be of any further help regarding dear old Don, don't hesitate
> to contact me.
>
> Owen Mulholland
Thanks, Owen and Ray.
Morgan -- Morgan Fletcher, morgan@hahaha.org Oakland, CA, USA