Dave The Water Man Has Left the Building
David “The Water Man” Ross Passes Away at 83
“We both knew he wasn’t long for this world,” Mark said when I delivered the news that our friend, Dave, passed away yesterday. It was true.
He was weathered when we first met him ten years ago. And since we hadn’t seen him or heard from him in the last few years, we had a feeling that he wasn’t in the best of health.
Dave and I were both from Detroit, “a good place to be FROM,” we used to joke with each other. He was adept at making people laugh. At making people feel human. At loving people.
How We Met
Mark and I first met Dave in 2007 when we were shooting our multi-award-winning documentary, “The Invisible Ones: Homeless Combat Veterans.” Dave was a Korean War veteran. He didn’t go much into it except to say that it was a travesty that veterans would be homeless on our streets. “They served our country. And now we should be serving them,” he would say. With Dave, the “Ghandi of San Diego,” at our side, we were able to enter the realm of the San Diego homeless. Where they would otherwise be suspicious of people toting a camera and a tripod, they welcomed us because they loved Dave. His amazing personality inspired me to produce a short documentary called ” Small Acts of Kindness.”
Indefatigable.
That’s a great word to describe Dave. Even when he had a cold, or was beaten up by a police officer while handing out water, or stabbed by a mentally-ill homeless person, he would be out there, rain or shine, handing out water to the homeless. He first discovered his calling on a rare rainy night in the city. Dave saw a woman shivering beneath a highway underpass. He gave her a blanket but she needed something else. Something essential to life. A sip of water. He had only his own bottle of water which he offered her. “Oh no, I couldn’t take your water,” she said. He insisted. She was so parched that she had trouble downing it, but when she finally did, she said, “Oh thank you, God.”
He realized then that homeless people didn’t have the water they needed. There were no water fountains downtown. They were dying of thirst.
So he began delivering bottled water. He bought crates of water every day to deliver to the homeless. He paid for it with his Social Security money.
“Hugs For Chugs”
The only thing he asked for in return for the water was a hug.
One day Mark and I were shooting interviews with Dave Ross and Rachel Jensen Akil, the person who conceived the “Girls Think Tank,” which was the predecessor to “Think Dignity.” There was this woman, rather small and shy. I guessed her to be in her 30’s. She was clutching a small stuffed animal. Dave gave her his special attention, hugging her and holding her in a long, loving embrace. She looked up at him like all the problems of her hard-scrabble life had fallen away.
A week later we learned that her body was found behind a dumpster.
“If you are not mentally ill when you first hit the streets, you soon will be,” Dave told us. “These streets will kill you.”
Dave frequented City Council meetings where he advocated for restrooms downtown and a storage facility where the homeless could stow their belongings. Those are two of his proudest accomplishments.
Although not unexpected, his absence will be cause for much sorrow in the homeless community. He was the one person the homeless could count on to see them as spirits living a human existence. And his faithful and loving spirit will be sorely missed.
