We grieve for the passing of our dear friend and colleague Dewey Schwartzenburg, who died suddenly on May 11th, five days after his 59th birthday. He was managing editor of this magazine from its launching in 1985 and worked with the Coastal Conservancy since 1982. He was a spiritual man of great gifts and abilities, who lived his life fully. He will be sorely missed.

We found among Dewey’s papers an essay he wrote around 1992, reflecting on his path since 1980, when he came to California. He had graduated from Harvard College in 1967, with a major in astrophysics, gone on to Episcopal Divinity School, been ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1972, and after five more years of liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame and service in several parishes, in 1980 found himself restless in Milwaukee, where he was associate editor of Astronomy magazine. He wrote:

So I went west. California called to me, as it has (unfortunately) to all too many. I decided on San Francisco, not just because of its year-round mild climate, but also because the city appealed to me greatly in other ways. In addition to having one of the most beautiful natural settings of any city, San Francisco is exciting, culturally diverse, and politically liberal. And contrary to what some friends have thought, it was the straight rather than the gay community of San Francisco that attracted me. It was important to me to live in a society where one’s sexual orientation is a matter of secondary interest, rather than a essential basis of personal judgment, and this is largely the case in San Francisco. Here, friends are made and personal social cultures are created on the basis of more important considerations than one’s sexuality.

My work at the Coastal Conservancy is especially satisfying to me, since one of the reasons for my move was that I love the ocean so much, and the California coast in particular. I also love mountains, and there are plenty of those here as well! Of course I especially love the Big Sur, since it is there where the mountains literally meet the sea, in a sort of Yin-Yang unity of cosmic beauty. But the High Sierra is a close second.

One of my greatest pleasures in recent years has been camping, backpacking, and whitewater rafting trips in the California wilderness, including the North Coast, the Klamath and American Rivers, and Catalina Island as well as the old standbys, Big Sur and Yosemite. And of course my work takes me all along the coast, which is a pleasure as well. Still, there is so much of California I have not yet experienced, so I rarely leave the state at all, although I did go to Baja California Sur for the solar eclipse of July 1991—witnessing a total eclipse of the sun being a life-time dream.

Closer to home, I revel in attending the San Francisco Symphony and Opera performances, and going to Giants baseball games, college football games, and (on the rare occasions I can get tickets) 49er games. And although secularly employed, as an Episcopal priest I have remained active in the Church, having been an Assisting Priest at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in San Francisco since 1983.

In short, I believe I have found my “place” in life, not just geographically but also spiritually, psychologically, personally, and socially, and am very happy with it. The basic shape of my life is very pleasing to me. Of course there are problems in the world that distress me greatly, such as the plague of AIDS, the ever-increasing plight of the poor and disenfranchised, and all the economic and social injustices of American society, but at this point in my life I personally feel highly blessed.

Neal Fishman, one of those who knew him longest at the Coastal Conservancy, reflected:

Dewey loved the Coastal Conservancy. It wasn’t just that he loved the Conservancy’s coastal protection mission. I believe he loved the place for some of the same reasons that I do. This agency is full of very bright people, a few even approaching Dewey in smarts. We have always appreciated brainy, curmudgeonly, and slightly eccentric people. He could expound on philosophy, religion, astronomy, history, and art. It was like having your own college professor next door to answer your urge for some bit of esoteric knowledge. He was quicker than the Internet and just as authoritative.

Dewey’s life as a gay man was never hidden. He reveled in it and shared his friends, gay and straight, with us at numerous events and parties, and now we are sharing our grief with them.

Finally, I think that Dewey loved the Conservancy because we loved him, in all his glory, in every thing that he was, a priest, an intellectual, a wit, a baseball and opera fan, a bawdy gay man, a computer wizard, our astronomer on camping trips, a very competent editor—a friend.

Dewey’s sister, Lilian Prather, requested that we include some of what he said on the celebration of his 25th anniversary as a priest.

Remember the tripod of Prayer, Study, and Action to which we are all called. That is my message to you tonight, and my prayer is that you would respond to my message with the words of the Gradual Song: ‘Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart.’

—Rasa Gustaitis