Born September 27, 1952, in Carlisle, England, David played football (soccer, to you Yanks) in school. He later moved to South Africa, where he worked in engineering. He immigrated to the United States, chiefly the Southern California area, in 1980. While working at the British Tourist Board in Los Angeles years later, he met his future business partner, a fellow Brit named Peggy Simonian. Together they launched the idea of opening an authentic British pub, with real British ales on tap and cask, and with European football on the telly.

Contrary to popular belief, there actually was a Los Angeles beer scene, if not a large one, back then. In the beginning, the Stuffed Sandwich in San Gabriel specialized in serving imported beers in the pre-brewpub days of the mid-1970s. By the mid-1980s, the original Father’s Office in Santa Monica introduced us to the little breweries first popping up in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Also on the scene around that time were Naja’s Place in Redondo Beach and Hollingshead’s in Orange — all standard bearers for good beer in Los Angeles.

David and Peggy’s contribution to this pantheon was their founding of Los Angeles’s answer to San Francisco’s Toronado when they opened Lucky Baldwins British Pub in Old Town Pasadena 1996. It was the quintessential British pub, with many then-hard-to-find kegged and bottled beers from the U.K. and Ireland.

But David soon became obsessed with the beers of Belgium. He visited that country — and its breweries — often, even arranging and leading annual beer tours for his patrons and friends, and befriending the brewers and distributors. By 2000, Lucky Baldwins was pouring as many Belgian beers as English ales, if not more, and it arguably became the country’s first Belgian beer bar. While drinking beers in Belgium, David was often heard to remark to the brewers or publicans who served him, “We’ve got that on tap.” It’s no wonder that he was knighted by the Belgian Brewers Guild in Brussels in 2004.

From the street, his Old Town Pasadena establishment always looked like nothing more than an ordinary European deli. However, in back is a beer drinker’s nirvana: taps of hard-to-find import and craft beers, bottles upon bottles of even more, and a staff who knows all about them. Prominently featured always were the beers of Craftsman Brewing. David considered his place the home pub of Pasadena’s own microbrewery, and it was the first venue to put Craftsman’s beers on tap. Was it any wonder that Mark Jilg, Craftsman’s owner and brewer, offered to rebuild and expand the draught system a few years ago?

Lucky Baldwins beer festivals quickly became legendary; seemingly every beer of the type being celebrated — whether Belgians, barley wines or IPAs — was included. We were forever asking, “How did he get those beers?” The savvy knew to visit Lucky Baldwins in the weeks after those festivals. More than leftovers were to be had, for David constantly would be “discovering” kegs meant for that fest that had become “lost.” Somehow, those “found” beers tasted even better.

David was often characterized as a grumpy and salty sort, but that side of him was always peppered by a sly smile, a twinkle in his eye, a droll sense of humor and a warm heart. He might seem disinterested or even rude when you asked him about some rare beer but might then reappear a bit later with a bottle of said rarity and offer you and your mates a complimentary pour.

As the Los Angeles beer culture grew, business increased. David and Peggy opened two more outposts: Lucky Baldwins Delirium Pub in Sierra Madre in 2005, and Lucky Baldwins Trappiste Pub and Café in East Pasadena in January 2011.

David did his best to soldier on as his disease progressed. He was still drinking his beloved Belgian beers and visiting all three locations of his pubs within the week that he passed.

The publican’s publican, David was remembered on November 3 with a memorial service in a Pasadena funeral home chapel. About a hundred family members, close friends and industry associates attended. An emotional slideshow of photos from throughout his life was projected, from his baby pictures, to his football-playing days in school in England, to images with his wife and young children, all the way to the tribute to him, which he attended, at his Trappiste Pub last July.

The image that elicited a noticeable, bittersweet sigh from the beer people in the chapel: a photo from a dozen or so years ago of David with Craftsman’s Mark Jilg and the great Beer Hunter himself, Michael Jackson, sharing brews at the original Lucky Baldwins. That iconic image really said it all about David: Seated in the center, he was literally the nexus between the history and awareness of craft beer, as represented by Michael Jackson (also sadly no longer with us), and the present — and future — of craft beer in Southern California, as personified by Mark Jilg, whose Craftsman Brewing Company is the longest-extant microbrewery in the Los Angeles area.

Later in the day, the Trappiste Pub location hosted a celebration of David that was open to all. Tributes were given, stories told, memories recalled, cheers offered and, of course, beers enjoyed.

David has passed on to the great Belgian beer bar in the sky, where the taps are never dry, the lines are always clean — and he doesn’t have to bark at the staff to “Get back to work,” as they are there only to serve him.

Rest (and drink) well, David. Now you can enjoy the angels’ share.

— Tomm Carroll and Don Erickson