PSJA Bear Memories

David Lowell Archibald

1941 - 2001

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This Bears’ Den on the internet, www.PSJABears.net, was the idea and creation of David Lowell Archibald. With the help of another Bear, Ann Hilton Chaney who had been working to help alumni of PSJA contact former classmates, he opened the Bears’ Den on Veteran’s Day in 1999. My name is Don Sherer, Class of 1963. One of my cousins told me about the website a month later and I met Lowell a few months after that while exchanging information to be included on the Bears' Den.

I learned that Lowell was a man with many skills. He was a caring person who was generous with his talents. He frequently repaired computers for friends and neighbors and even built porches with steps and access ramps for some of them who have special needs. David Lowell’s work creating and maintaining the Bears’ Den has resulted in a useful and enjoyable site for PSJA alumni to contact former classmates and reminisce for years to come. With help from other 'Bears', he was able to prepay the site fees until September 2007. I promised Lowell that I would look after this website into which he has invested so much work and care. When he passed away on December 7, 2001 the Bears’ Den had been visited over 24,000 times. Many lives have been blessed by the generosity and work of David Lowell Archibald. Thank you, God, for sharing David Lowell with us. The world is a better place for his having been here. – Don Sherer

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DAVID LOWELL

BY CHEYANNE

12/11/01

DAVID LOWELL WAS HIS NAME

HE TOLD ME IN HIS NOTE

HE WAS A '57 BEAR

AS ON AND ON HE WROTE

HE WONDERED WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT

A WEBSITE SOON TO BE

A PLACE FOR BEARS TO MEET AND GREET

HE WANTED TO HELP ME

YOU'LL FIND SO MANY MORE BEARS

HAVE EMAIL ADDYS TOO

I HAVE ALL THE KNOW HOW

BUT INFORMATION COMES FROM YOU

SO I FILED AND TYPED AND FAXED

AND SCANNED AND SENT THEM THROUGH

AND WONDERED ALL THE WHILE I WORKED

WHAT DAVID LOWELL WOULD DO

AND ONE DAY, SOONER THAN I THOUGHT

DAVE ASKED ME FOR A NAME

HE SAID, "IF THE BEARS DON'T LIKE IT,

THEN YOU'LL GET ALL THE BLAME!"

THE BEAR'S DEN WAS THE ONLY NAME

IT'S ONE I THOUGHT WOULD LAST

A NAME THAT SHOULD LEAD ALL BEARS

BACK INTO THE PAST

AND SO CHEYANNE AND DAVID

OPENED UP THE SITE

AND WE WERE SO EXCITED

ON THAT SPECIAL NIGHT

AS BEARS RECEIVED MY EMAIL

THREE HUNDRED SENT THAT DAY

TO COME AND VISIT IN THE DEN

A PLACE TO HAVE YOUR SAY

COME THEY DID, AND SIGNED THE BOOK

AND DAVID LABORED ON

THINKING OF NEW THINGS FOR THE BEARS

SOMETIMES FROM DUSK TIL DAWN

HE'D NEVER HAD A SISTER

AND WAS ADOPTING ONE IN ME

SO HE BECAME MY "BUBBY"

AND I WAS HIS "SISSY"

DAVE WAS A PRIVATE PERSON

AND DIDN'T WANT TO TELL

THE DOCTORS HAD FOUND CANCER

HE WAS GOING NOW THROUGH HELL

HE BEGAN TO LOOK AROUND

A REPLACEMENT HE WOULD SEEK

THE DEN BEGAN TO SUFFER SOME

AS DAVID GREW MORE WEAK

A MAN NAMED DON STEPPED UP TO BAT

WITH HELP, HE'LL CARRY ON

BUBBY'S "LOVE CHILD" WILL SURVIVE

LONG AFTER HE IS GONE

I CALLED BUBBY ON THE PHONE

THREE DAYS BEFORE HE PASSED

I TOLD HIM THAT I LOVED HIM

AND THAT HIS WORK WOULD LAST

THE DECEASED LIST IS HEARTBREAKING

AND VERY SAD TO KEEP

BUT I PUT BUBBY'S NAME THERE WHEN

GOD TOOK HIM IN HIS SLEEP

HE DIED ON PEARL HARBOR DAY

MY "BUBBY" TIL THE END

BUT I WILL ALWAYS SEE HIM

WHEN I VISIT IN THE DEN!

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This photograph of Lowell and his brother, Don, was taken at the 2000

PSJA 'All Classes Reunion' in Kerrville. The PSJABears.net website

was only seven months old at that time. Lowell was there with his digital

cameras (notice his right hand) getting reacquainted with old friends, making

new ones and all the while, gathering material to add to the Bears’ Den.

Brothers Don (L) & David Lowell Archibald (R)