By Carol Fisher-Linn
He was so dependable; you could set your clock by him.
Lifetime Chautauqua County area resident, David Sexton Lawson Jr., 89, of Bemus Point, NY passed away November 27, 2022. The valedictorian status given him by his 1951 class at Bemus Point Central School proved providential in the years following with an enormous list of accomplishments. His BS in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering served him well in his naval career spanning from 1955 to1958 (active duty) then continuing in the Navy reserves for 32 years, retiring in 1987 carrying the rank of Captain.
His involvement with all things amphibious was right in his wheelhouse being the son of David S. Sr., whose life revolved around building and restoring boats. David Senior established the family business in 1918, creating L. S. Aero Marine, Inc. in Bemus Point, NY and another on the Chadakoin River at Clifton, NY. Jerry Stanton, David Jr’s friend informs that the steel beams for the Bemus building came into David Sr’s possession because of a Cris Craft factory worker’s strike in Falconer. A deal could not be negotiated and the owners, who had bought the steel for an add-on to the building, closed the doors and sold the steel to David Sr. which he used for his own building.
In 1968, David Jr. took over the family business, serving as president until 2018. This was a hands-on boat shop – mostly his hands. Like his father, David built, sold, maintained, stored, and repaired boats for the fun-loving boating community on Chautauqua Lake. They basically introduced leisure boating to the lake. In 2010, this life member of the Chautauqua Lake Twin Tier Antique Classic Boat Society generously donated the original boat shop building in Bemus Point to the Lawson Boating Heritage Center, where he continued to serve on the Board of Trustees.
Bemus Point and the boating community have lost a legendary encyclopedic genius who never forgot a boat, a sale or the status of a boat he or his father had sold. His friend, Bill Reynolds recounted about the numbers of parts in the building that no one but David knew why they were there. Another friend, Tom Calesina cleared the mystery by talking about a part that his volunteers wanted to ditch only to be told to keep it in stock because it was for a 1947 Cris Craft and David knew that the original owner still owned it. He was that kind of guy. He never forgot a boat, or the person attached to it. And there are still boats on the lake today that were built, serviced, and repaired by both Davids.
As David grew older, he would camp in the Museum in his comfortable padded chair, which his friend Andy Robinson called the “Chair of Knowledge.” When he wasn’t helping with a restoration, he would sit in that chair and do puzzles or read books, which was his happy place. People wandered in and out, asking questions about their boats – how to fix or refinish or care for them. Robinson said, “you’d almost think he didn’t hear, and then he’d finally speak from the Chair of Knowledge, giving forth with the most clearly understood, accurate, pluperfect answer to the question.” Robinson related how he, David and Tom worked to restore David Sr’s 22 foot, 1930’s vintage Hacker Craft boat with a Scripts 131 hp engine, which he built by hand, using only a set of prints purchased from the manufacturer. When it finally got back into the water a few years ago, David Jr. took the wheel and grinned from ear to ear as he took it for a spin around the lake. A video of that episode can be seen at the Lawson Museum in the Heritage Center, 73 Lakeside Drive, along with many fine old wooden boats and a biplane hanging from the ceiling. It is open in the summer months. (thelawsoncenter.org)
Asked to describe this man, his friends say he touched many people calling him serene, cerebral, reliable, quiet, genius, mentor, a role model, thoughtful, jolly, frugal, yet an enigma. He did everything and knew everything about boats, using his hands, his intelligence, mathematics, and a compass (this called “spilling” – look it up in modelship.com) to determine the curve of a piece of wood to restore a boat in need. Presently in the museum there sits a double bow canoe which they were working on for the last few years. One of them said, “we wondered what we will do if anything happens to David before we are done.” Well, now they know. They will put in on wheels and set it on display in the museum as David’s last unfinished project, since none of them have the vast amount of knowledge he had to make the repairs on it. RIP David. You will be sorely missed by many.