Howard White, president of Harbour Publishing looks over the newly released "The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver" with Chuck Davis' wife Edna at the book launch in Vancouver November 17, 2011.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Chuck Davis was a Vancouverite whose love for his city drove him to take on a seemingly impossible task: to singlehandedly document and record its history, beginning with the birth, in 1757, of the English explorer George Vancouver. The task, as it turned out, was impossible. This year, some 40 people came together to finish what Mr. Davis had started, in an extraordinary collaboration which has itself become an important chapter in Vancouver's history.
"His contribution to the city was amazing," said Erick Villagomez, one of the people who stepped forward to help. "And for me to be a part of that, even in any minute way, I was more than happy to do that."
Mr. Davis had made it to 1994 when in September, 2010, he stood up at one of former mayor Sam Sullivan's public salons and stunned the crowd: He was dying, he said, and he needed people to help him finish his book.
A few weeks later – a year ago this weekend – Mr. Davis, who had just turned 75, did indeed die, of lung cancer, and the future of his herculean project was in question.
The rest, as they say, is history.
"When it was obvious that he wasn't going to have enough time, I made a commitment to him that I would see it done," Harbour Publishing's Howard White told The Globe and Mail this week. "I was confident that we could pull enough people together to finish it off, and I actually at that point gave him a new contract, guaranteeing him that the book would be done and it would be done in this year, the 125th anniversary year. And it was a pretty tall order. But it was worth it just to see the relief that that gave him."
The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver was officially released this week at a celebratory event at the history-laden Rosewood Hotel Georgia.
"We did it! I can't believe it," Mr. White proclaimed, the publisher's arms in the air in victory, the nearly 600-page glossy tome in front of him.
Writing the history of this city, in the end, took a village.
Mr. Davis had been working on the book – what would be his 18th – for many years. This labour of love was the culmination, his wife Edna says, of his life's work.
"That's what he wanted, was for people to read about Vancouver, love Vancouver," Mrs. Davis said. "And that's why this book was just so important."
When Mr. Davis received the diagnosis from his doctor, plans were quickly formed to get the book finished. Money was raised to buy him out of a contract he was under to write another book – about the history of mining in B.C. – so he could concentrate on his history book.
There were discussions about hiring another writer, but that didn't pan out. So Allen Garr – a veteran Vancouver journalist whose history with Mr. Davis goes back to their time together at BCTV (now Global) in the 1970s – stepped in. They devised a Plan A: Mr. Garr would help Mr. Davis finish the book; and a Plan B – the book would be finished without Mr. Davis.
Plan B was launched shortly after Mr. Davis's death. Mr. White collected his files and then he, Mr. Garr – who served as "external co-ordinator" – and managing editor Anna Comfort O'Keeffe began searching for contributors.
"People just kind of set aside their lives and jumped into this thing," said Mr. Garr, who took on the years 2004-2007. "No one I talked to said no. Chuck was not a wealthy man in dollars, but he had more social capital in this town than anyone I've ever met. You just had to say 'this is for Chuck' and people were there."
Pender Harbour-based writer Elaine Park was responsible for 1993-2003. "I just researched and dug and tried to find the kinds of stories that I thought would have fitted with Chuck's anecdotal genius," said Ms. Park, who notes that in some ways the task was more daunting than her PhD on medieval literature.
"I couldn't be Chuck," Ms. Park said, "so what I tried to do was write within what I imagined to be the spirit of his eyes."
One of the biggest challenges, says Ms. Comfort O'Keeffe, was going through Mr. Davis's piles of work and filling in the blanks. There were dozens of spots where Mr. Davis had left a note to himself to double-check a fact or look something up.
The work was completed in June – so up-to-date that even the Stanley Cup riot was included.
"I think we were a little crazy. Enthusiastic, though," said Ms. Comfort O'Keeffe, who was tasked with co-ordinating the writers, editors, fact-checkers, subject consultants, caption writers and other contributors.
"Chuck on his own did the first 250 years and it took 40 of us to do [the rest]" Mr. Garr told the gathering this week – held on the eve of what would have been Mr. Davis's 76th birthday.
Mr. White used the occasion to share one last time a favourite story about Mr. Davis: Speaking to a class of Grade 4, 5 and 6 students, he put up an image showing the statue of George Vancouver in front of city hall and asked the class who it was. As the story goes, 100 voices shouted out with complete confidence: "George Washington!"
Mr. Davis took that slide to 49 schools in Metro Vancouver and only once found a student who knew it was Captain Vancouver. "He liked to recount this experience every chance he got because it said everything he wanted to say about the kind of work he was doing and why he felt it was needed," Mr. White said.
This desire was behind Mr. Davis's drive to write this exhaustive history, and his heartbreak to have to leave it unfinished.
"But I like to think," Mr. White said, "that when he shuffled off to the great archive in the sky on Nov. 20, 2010, he took comfort in the knowledge that his great scheme would live on."
A public launch for the book will be held Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library.
Marsha Lederman