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David Daniel embraced Lowell
David Daniel (1945-2026)
David Daniel passed away on May 5, 2026. He was a prolific writer and a longtime contributor to this blog. He also touched the lives of many people. Remembrances from his friends Steve O’Connor, Jerry Bisantz, Jay Atkinson and Ed DeJesus have previously appeared on this site here and here. Today, Anne Whitaker, a close friend and former neighbor of Dave and his wife Stephanie, shares her thoughts on Dave and his passing.
David Daniel embraced Lowell
By Anne Whitaker
My husband Bob and I moved into a small condo in the Lamson Estate mansion at 209 Nesmith St, Lowell in the mid-1980s. The DeAngelis brothers had rehabbed the mansion into beautiful condos. The brothers told us that there was a couple moving into the unit below ours – the husband is a writer and the wife works at a college they succinctly reported.
David and Stephanie moved in at about the same time we did. Bob and I purchased and helped design our lovely condo on the 3rd floor that had been service areas and quarters for the mansion. David and Stephanie’s condo was on the second floor directly below us and had been a beautiful living area. The house provided us it’s own Lowell story and history that we all enjoyed. From that base on Nesmith we forayed out to sample Lowell’s ethnic eateries especially the Sundance on Central Street and we enjoyed the burgeoning arts scene. This was the start of our beautiful friendship – friendships plural actually.
Back to David and Lowell…David based his private eye novels in Lowell. The fictional PI Alex Rasmussen had his office on Merrimack Street across from the Lowell Sun Building. David even wrote Bob into his Alex Rasmussen books depicting Bob in his actual news photographer profession at “The Sun”. David taught at UMass Lowell as you know. He became a Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence. He was sought out as a speaker and expert interviewee on Kerouac and writing.
David and Stephanie moved to Westford, while we stayed on at the Lamson mansion for a bit longer and then moved to Chelmsford. Bob and Dave took a few creative forays into the city when they could. Whenever we got together, Lowell and “our mansion” were favorite topics.
David was constantly writing for himself or reviewing others’ manuscripts or drafts in many genres of writing. You can see from the blogs and comments how David inspired and assisted so many. Beyond writing, David’s calm demeanor, generosity, kindness and great intellect provided further inspiration. He later fired up young students’ imaginations while teaching at the Middlesex Academy Charter School.
There are others reading this who can say a lot more about David’s symbiotic relationship with Lowell. For me, David was able to bring our house, neighborhood, mills, characters, seedy parts, arts and other parts of Lowell to life. In those early years, his interpretations penetrated my psyche. Every time I went to Lowell I always thought of David and Stephanie and my husband Bob in that mansion, discovering and traipsing around Lowell and making the city our own. (Bob passed in 2019 – we had been divorced for a while.)
Now when I am in Lowell it feels like I am inside an Escher painting. The windows of “our mansion” look askew, the streets undulate and the mill buildings seem tipsy. The element that formed the city for me and meant so much is missing. There is a void. I think the city itself can feel it.
This has been about David and Lowell. Yet I feel a more personal void. My friend of 40+ years has left and I feel “a disturbance in [my] Force”. I’m a bit adrift about it and can’t put it into words well. I’m thankful David and Stephanie decided to move to 209 Nesmith Street so long ago. It was a blessing for me that they did.
I recently thought about all the writing David had left to do. He said last Fall that he had so much left to write, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to get to everything. Can a writer EVER finish everything he or she wants to write? I selfishly wish he could have finished up a few more. I will be re-reading some of my faves, and delving into more.
One thing I have already done and will continue to do is follow this directive. Perhaps you can too.
“Take your memories and make them his immortality.” From Reunion by David Daniel.
Thanks for this joyful and nostalgic remembrance, Anne. David loved to say that Lowell was his muse. Indeed it was, and so much of his creative work centered on this multi-colored, multi-dimensional city. Having you and Bob to explore it in our early days will always be a treasured memory.
Well done, Anne. There were so many facets to Dave as a writer and an individual that are illuminated in these portraits by his friends. His passing has left many of us with “a disturbance in our force.” I’m sure he’d have some encouraging words for us.
I have been close to Dave since 1970 when we were thrown together in the army in Texas. More recently when my wife and I visited, he gave us a riveting tour of Lowell. His love for the city and her people were quite apparent. He was organically connected to the city, his alternative school, and native son, Jack Kerouac. As a leading mover in the local literary community, he gave the Lowell gritty underbelly a starring historical role is several of his novels and short stories. Dave started as a young son of the South Shore; only to eventually become a cultural denizen of his famous industrial city. RIP.
What a wonderful remembrance, William! Thank you so much for your comments and especially about David and Lowell. It’s so wonderful you stayed in touch over these decades.
You have a great read on him with his South Shore roots and his deep connection that he developed to follow.
Thanks again!
Anne, thank you for this fine piece on Dave. Ironically, I still have the snail letter I sent him in 1992 to 209 Nesmith St, that introduced the first three chapters of my first novel.
I had the choice between David Daniel and Andre Dubus III to critique my novel and meet with at an upcoming UMass Writers Conference the following spring. Both had strong writing credentials; both went on to have excellent careers and were Jack Kerouac Visiting Writers-in-Residence at UMass Lowell. Since my novel was set predominantly in Lowell and its characters, one loosely based on Paul Tsongas, who lived in Belvidere, I chose Dave because of his Nesmith Street address.
Dave told me my first novel was ambitious, but I should set it aside and work on something else. He was right. Thirty-five years later, he wrote the back-jacket blurb for my award-winning thriller, The Vulnerable, also set in Lowell. No other author inspired me or affected my life as much as Dave. I clearly chose the right author to mentor me.
Coincidentally, after my high-tech career, I was also a realtor and mortgage broker licensed in both MA and NH. In 2016, I helped my daughter’s friend list her condo at 209 Nesmith Street. When I compared the other units in that building, I found the one Dave and Stephanie lived in and saw the bookcase where Dave stood for a Lowell Sun story about his first Alex Rasmussen story in Lowell. I keep that newspaper clipping in a file with other correspondence from Dave.
I concur. Dave Daniel embraced Lowell, and for a period in the 90s, the city embraced him and his PI series. He left his footprint on the downtown cobblestones; the mayor should have presented him with a key to the city!
My wife and I will be going to Marco Island, FL, for a staycation in late August. I’ll be rereading Dave’s signed copy of The Marble Kite, his last in the Lowell Rasmussen run.
Anne, thank you again for bringing me back to visions of Dave and Lowell, a muse we share.