Link: Dave Kyle at 96

Dave Kyle originally planned to celebrate his 96th Valentine's birthday at Boskone, but was among those who cancelled shortly before the blizzard-bound convention.

This past Saturday, friends celebrated his birthday, and Bill Burns took a splendid photo of Dave. He gave me permission to share the link as well as his description of meeting Dave 50 years ago this Easter and the help Dave gave him during Bill's 1967 trip to North America.

Bill wrote:

I first met Dave at the 1965 Birmingham Eastercon, then saw him again at Great Yarmouth the next year. At the 1967 Eastercon in Bristol I mentioned to Dave that I would be spending the summer in the USA on a student charter, with a 99 days for 99 dollars unlimited travel Greyhound bus pass. I was 19 at the time and it sounded like a good idea, especially as I could visit my brother in Canada and also get to the Worldcon.

Dave immediately gave me his phone number in Potsdam, told me to call him collect when I arrived in New York, and said he would then arrange with fans across the country to host me as I travelled. And he did.

Along the way I stayed with Dave and Ruth in Potsdam for a few days, and said that I would like to visit Expo 67, the World's Fair in Montreal that year. We checked the bus schedules, and there was one Greyhound a day to and from Montreal - the outbound and return buses crossed in Potsdam at 4am. So Dave dropped me off at the bus station in the middle of the night, I spent a full day in Montreal and took the next bus back, and he picked me up at the bus station in Potsdam at 4am the next day.

The end of my trip was NyCon3. I arrived in Manhattan directly from three days and nights on the bus from California, spent the first night of the con in a room with a bunch of Canadian fans, then Dave offered me the couch in the living room of his hotel suite for the rest of the con. He also got me on a radio show call-in late one night, following which we went out for ice cream.

Two days after the con I was back home in Manchester, ready for my final year at Leeds University. I've never forgotten Dave's many kindnesses and would do anything to help him now.