UPDATE: Los Angeles Area Memorial Announced ; Beautiful Obituary Published.
LINK TO SCOTT'S OBITUARY:
http://wisconsin.obituaries.funeral.com/2013/02/04/scott-mcclean/
NEW POSTER CREATED FOR MEMORIAL GATHERING IN SANTA MONICA:
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You know, it's OK to say you love someone, especially if you mean it. And in the case of our great friend Scott McClean I can without reservation say, "I love you, man!"
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| Still one of my favorite photos of Scott - high above the Suattle River on Green Mountain in Washington, May 2005 |
He died on Wednesday after an extended battle with cancer. No need to detail it here because it was the most unfair situation you could imagine. It was one thing to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, but it also had to be the most aggressive and complicated form of the disease. Scott and his loved ones were strong until the end. They never wanted to hear a prognosis of how long he had to live. Ultimately, he had a reluctant acceptance of this fate. Sure, we're all going to be there someday. This was just much too soon.
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Scott McClean
1962 - 2013
photo copyright Tom Yamarone |
What we want to remember and celebrate here is his life - albeit much too short. Scott had just turned 50 in December. I was fortuntate to know him for 1/5 of those 50 years. And it was bigfoot and our interest in the subject that brought us together. I don't know where this retrospective will go in the next few days; have not been able to really sort out this huge loss. Condolences and shared memories have been expressed by phone and in writing since we heard the news at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
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At Fish Lake in the Six Rivers National Forest near Bluff Creek, July 2012
photo by Tom Yamarone |
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| Bobo, yours truly and Scott. Excited and happy to begin our journey to Bluff Creek last July. |
But let's start with his first immense contribution to the bigfoot community - his awesome "life-size" wall banner of the bigfoot from the Patterson-Gimlin film. Scott and his friend Scott Salsman assembled this first version like a jig saw puzzle - page by page and then brought it to the Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium in September 2003. (in Willow Creek, California, of course).
Everyone in attendance wanted to have their photo taken in front of it! And there it is in the background of many a bigfoot enthusiast's photo.
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Scott with the PG film banner, Willow Creek Bigfoot Symposium, 2003
photo courtesy of Scott McClean |
Later in October 2007 when we held the Patterson-Gimlin Film 40th Anniversary Celebration back in Willow Creek, Scott had made a more permanent version on vinyl. It was the centerpiece of the event and again, photos posing in front of it abound.
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with Terry Smith, Sherry Ledenbach and Dave McCullough, PG Film 40th Anniv. event, October 20, 2007
photo copyright Tom Yamarone |
Guess we'll always think of Scott now when we see that giant bigfoot banner.
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The next chapter simply must involve his extensive research into on-line, subscription newspaper archives where he was able to glean close to 500 articles that involved bigfoot dating back to the mid-1800s. He sorted these chronologically by state and Canadian province. It was his passion - his relentless passion - to find these articles and read them to friends. He never backed down from a debate about the validity of these creatures and this enthusiasm earned him the self-proclaimed moniker of "Tirademan". Scott Salsman shared with me how excited he would get whenever he made a new discovery in the archives of some article that clearly depicted bigfoot and bigfoot-like behavior back in the pioneer era. Scott said he would print the page and bring it to bar to read to everyone. Ha! (another trademark McClean-ism).
Eventually the printed articles were assembled into a big entitled "Big News Prints" and a very few were printed out at the old Kinko's near his house. He then began to distribute the book on CD and that's how many people have it.
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...a work in progress. As memory and time allow.
Thoughts and sentiments from Facebook:
Tom Y:
We met, like you and I Craig, at the Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium in September 2003. And stayed in touch because Scott's friend Scott Salzman (sp?) videotaped the impromptu performance of the bigfoot song. So, that kept us in touch. and I guess it was via the bigfootforums and emails/messages until we traveled to the Bellingham Sasquatch Research Conference in May 2005. From then on, we were always in touch and very close. Scott was a big part of all the conferences I have organized. He designed the event graphics - posters, t-shirts, etc. And then was on-hand to make sure all the presentations went smoothly. That's just the working relationship we had. Beyond that, we were as close as brothers...brothers from different mothers. :-) His legacy is the Big News Prints and that wealth of evidenciary information gleaned from newspaper archives. And he had added to the original collection in the last few years. Scott McClean was a talented, intelligent, creative and compassionate individual whose contributions to bigfoot research and the on-going dialogue were significant, serious and unrelenting.
hmmm? yeah, still getting my thoughts together.
He is sorely missed and dearly loved.
Dave McCullough:
