Dave Rike

[calimac]

Back when I was a member of FAPA, oh, twenty years and more agone now, attending collations up at Seth Goldberg's gave me the opportunity to confab with guys who were old-time fans even then. One of them was Dave Rike, whom I've recently learned from F770 died four months ago. You can read about his role in legendary fan history over there; here's a few words about the guy I knew.

Dave was a character, someone you had to take as he came, and he could be fun and invigorating in doses. Perhaps he was slightly autistic, for he had speech patterns and mannerisms I associate with that syndrome, but if so he was the most extroverted autistic around. He was very talkative, very curious and interested in things, very willing to pursue a point down to its roots without being argumentative or defensive about it. He always dressed informally, often in flannel, like the retired blue-collar worker I suppose he was.

He lived in Crockett, a tiny worn-down industrial village built around the old sugar-processing plant on the shore of the Carquinez Strait, in a post office box as far as I knew. You could always reach him on the phone, though it had some kind of processor that made his voice sound like a robot's. When he came to FAPA collations, he would often bring with him the even more legendary Redd Boggs. Redd was as taciturn as Dave was not, and very retiring. I think it must have taken someone of Dave's energy and enthusiasm to overcome the inertia of the prospect of getting Redd to go anywhere. Dave did enjoy these fannish gatherings, and he had a good heart.

Comments

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear Dave is gone. I've forgotten who it was, but years ago a fairly new fannish immigrant to the Bay Area, when I suggested something, fretted "but wouldn't that upset Dave Rike?" I had to snort and tell them that nobody -- especially not Dave Rike -- took Dave Rike that seriously.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Holy cow, I had no idea. Thanks for mentioning this. He was so quirky that I never was sure if I liked him or not, but on the whole I did, especially talking fanzine history.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

This is great stuff, thanks. As I said over at File770, I only ever talked to him once, at E Corflu Vitus. What I didn't mention is that, hm, he had more energy for the conversation than I did. Still, he was a character, as you say, with a very jaunty attitude. I knew the name but didn't know the history, and now I regret not being able to ask him more interesting questions.

Well, my ignorance really is appalling sometimes. I didn't know that Redd Boggs was a Bay Area fan, for instance.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I don't think Redd was here in the days he was most prominent. Minneapolis, I think? But he did come out here later.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Fancyclopedia says he was "LA-based".

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I think maybe he lived there for a while in the 60s? But not on a longer-term basis. The 1949-53 issues of Sky Hook that are up at fanac.org all give his address as Mpls, as I had recalled. That was the period of his most prominent fanac, so that's where I'd put him, if he goes in one place at all.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

That all makes sense to me.

[spacecrab.livejournal.com]

Redd was active in L.A. fandom from around 1964 - 1966. He participated in APA L, and occasionally ran off my APA-L zine, facilitated by the efforts of Tom Gilbert as a stencil courier. (Tom Gilbert was a prominent participant in the early days of APA L who disappeared after 1970.) I used to hang with Dave Rike a lot in the late 1980s - early '90s.

Dave was an instrumental part of my fannish life in those years. We would go to computer swapmeets together in the days before Microsoft Windows became the standard PC operating platform. He was obsessed with collecting classic CP/M and MS-DOS software, particularly word processing programs. I remember his glee in finding a vintage copy of "Electric Pencil" and Dan Bricklin's "Visicalc". Dave didn't actually have a working MS-DOS computer, having gone the same route as Redd Boggs and Art Widner in transferring his fanac to dedicated portable word processors instead of computers. But that didn't stop his zeal for collecting legacy word processing and spreadsheet software.. Dave also encouraged me to pub my ish, helping me to run off issue #3 of Whistlestar at his house on one of his many Gestetners.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It all seems tremendously fannish. Good stories.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to remember who told me the story of a bunch of guys (the person telling the story was one of them) who were headed out on some kind of fannish road trip and they stopped by Dave Rike's place. Dave said, "I'll come with you."

"We don't have time for you to pack."

"That's okay."

And Dave climbed in the car and went with them, without so much as a toothbrush.

Maybe it was Bill Donaho? Maybe it was Terry Carr? Anyway, the story was definitely about Dave Rike.