Once upon a time — in the mid 1980s — in a magical land of deep emerald-forested hills and sparkling blue-green-turquoise waters came a would-be Goliath looking to rule over “the soap opera society” he imagined the local residents of this tiny island studded paradise to be.
Though wbG had left a trail of creditors, lawsuits and a wife and child behind in the Midwest, eventually they lost his scent (along with untold amounts of money) and seemed to abandoned the pursuit.
Believing he had fully shed his past, wbG began to build his castles in the air in a place with enough courtiers and loopholes to accommodate his ever-growing lust for wealth and power.
Eventually, our “David” got a whiff of the blundering giant and began his years-long, low-key battle to expose wbG rather than defeat him; tirelessly using his superpowers: pen, intelligence, experience, trustworthiness and well-deserved respect to methodically uncover the nefarious, systemic means by which wbG was to all appearances successfully building or restoring in some cases his castles and buying his jet planes, watches, valuable artwork, and politicians “allegedly.”
At the risk of mixing metaphors and myths, castles built in the sand (or air) are eventually washed or blown away by the superpowers of a higher nature that leans toward truth and justice, and ultimate survival despite mainstream media headlines that scream otherwise.
Naturally, we cannot lose track of how pride inevitably cometh before a fall. While David North laid the groundwork by exposing the manipulations that led to the ill-gotten riches, wbG brought about his own demise. David and other esteemed writers and reporters merely chronicled his slow motion, episodic crash.
David S. North was born with dedication to service imbedded in him and never lost track of that primary purpose. He lived it right up until days before he died on April 26 at 95 years old.
David was a major player for the V.I. Source early on. He was well versed on, and I would have to say in love with, the American territories. I met him shortly before he left his post as public information officer at the Department of the Interior around 2000. Federal authority over the U.S. Virgin Islands was placed with the Interior in 1931. The territory became self-governing by virtue of the revised Organic Act of 1954 but remains under the oversight of DOI.
As is true for so many parts of history that become lost before we write them down, we will never know for sure what sparked David North to put his energy, effort and ultimately thousands and thousands of dollars into supporting and defending — hence the thousands of dollars — a fledgling internet newspaper far away from his home near Washington, D.C. But drawing from the annals of another mythological superhero, Kent Clark, and surmise it was “truth, justice” and what we idealize as “the American way.”
Back to our real-world David. We start with one of the first pieces that he researched for the Source, and then collaborated with former NBC News Washington, D.C., Bureau chief and former dean of American University School of Communication Frank Jordan, who also took up the cause of journalistic integrity by contributing his time, reputation, and energy to support the fledgling internet newspaper, who wrote the story.
Jim Day, a much younger version of these two men, who freelanced for the Source before he left the island, also contributed to the reporting. Happily it is one of the few stories we have prior to 2015 that still have bylines. The Source had lost all of its bylines in the process of a platform switch in 2014. An editor’s note at the end of this first story presented provided the fortunate assurance.
Innovative Telephone Heavily Subsidized
The next story — one of dozens — exemplifies the nature and means of the giant’s crash:
ICC, Prosser File for Bankruptcy
THE HAPPY ENDING as seen through the eyes of a true defender of “truth, justice and the American way.”
U.S. Marshals Ordered to Evict Prossers from Palm Beach Mansion
And herewith ends a brief history of, coupled with deep gratitude for, David S. North’s 25-year relationship with the United States Virgin Islands.
David S. North stepped away from his desk a few days before he died of natural causes.
May he rest deeply in the knowledge that he quietly and significantly altered the course, at least for a while, of our tiny American territory while deliberately doing the same for other parts of our country as well.
May our successors note and emulate this David’s story of integrity, persistence and lifelong public service.
“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Ghandi
