“He is irreplaceable,” said John Stenson, a friend from Muni. “The kindest man I ever met,” volunteered Maryalice Reinmuller, long–time Market Street Railway member. These were among dozens of tributes offered at a November 8, 2003 memorial service for David L. Pharr, one of America’s leading streetcar restoration experts and a leader of Market Street Railway. The memorial service took place at MSR’s streetcar restoration yard at Market Street
and Duboce Avenue, which one mourner called “Dave’s true home”. At the conclusion of the service, Muni Executive Director Michael Burns and MSR President Rick Laubscher jointly unveiled a bronze plaque renaming the site the David L. Pharr Streetcar Restoration Facility to honor Dave’s life work.
Dave, who had a history of heart trouble, passed away October 26, 2003 in San Francisco at the age of 70, following a brief period of rapidly declining health. Even as his energy ebbed and he found it difficult to get around, he insisted on going to the ‘Mint Division’ of MSR at Duboce and Market every weekday to oversee restoration work on two streetcars that he cared deeply about: 1914 Muni 162 and 1924 Market Street Railway Co. 798. Alarmed at the apparent deterioration of his health, many of his friends in MSR urged him to seek medical attention, but Dave, who was always very private and stoic, did not seem anxious to do so. Finally, he consented to let his friend Chris O’Neill take him to the doctor. Following an examination, he was quickly admitted to California Pacific Medical Center, but after several days of tests and treatment, Dave suffered a fatal heart attack in the hospital’s coronary care unit.
Memorial at Mint Division
Many friends who talked with him regularly on the telephone were unaware of his declining health, such was the brave front he kept up. Thus, many in the gathering of nearly one hundred friends at his memorial service found it hard to accept he was gone. Muni chief Michael Burns gave the main address, paying tribute to Dave’s work ethic, expertise, and most of all, kindness. Throughout his remarks, he wore a Market Street Railway cap that Dave had given him. A tribute was read from former Mayor Frank Jordan, who was unable to attend. Jordan, a longtime friend, said, “Dave brought new meaning to the term ‘public servant’, giving selflessly of himself as a volunteer for twenty years to help build a better San Francisco… He treated everyone with kindness and dignity, made many friends, and leaves everyone at this gathering sad at his passing, but happy to have called him friend.” Many in the crowd stepped forward to share their own memories of Dave, consistently referring to his kindness, patience, and good humor, even in aggravating situations.
The site of the memorial was chosen by MSR’s board of directors in consultation with several of Dave’s friends and his brother, Jim Pharr of Tulsa, who attended the service with his wife Elaine. All agreed that it was appropriate that Dave be honored in the place he seemed to like best. Muni brought 1917 work car C-1, which Dave helped restore, to the yard to serve as a platform for the eulogies, with Car 162 as a backdrop, its end freshly painted by volunteers Jack Smith, Eddy Hansen, and Fred Bennett, because as Jack said, “Dave always wanted the ends of cars that faced the street to look good, even in the middle of restoration.” Also standing watch, along with old 798, New Jersey Transit PCC 14, one of the fifteen just purchased by Muni, a move Dave championed, and which gave him pleasure when it came to pass in his last weeks of life.
Hot dogs and cable cars
A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dave Pharr came to California after attending the University of Oklahoma, and running a motor pool as an US Army lieutenant. Settling in San Francisco, he ran a hot dog stand at Market and Powell in the 1970s, with the cable car turntable on one side and on the other, Muni’s five streetcar lines (J, K, L, M, and N), then running on the surface of Market Street and served by the Art Deco PCC cars. Dave was quickly befriended by many car crews taking their breaks, including then–gripman Jack Smith. “Dave was fascinated with the cable cars,” Jack remembers, “and you could tell he was quickly absorbing everything about how they worked.”
By 1983, Dave was working as a counselor at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center, and Jack Smith was a motorman in the first San Francisco Historic Trolley Festival. Dave began stopping by what was informally being called the Mint Division, the hastily built ‘temporary’ facility where Muni was servicing the vintage streetcars used in the festival. With his low–key affable manner, Dave soon made friends with a wide range of people involved in the summertime activity, including blustery Maurice Klebolt, master maintainers Karl Johnson, Romer Manag and Art Michel, volunteer festival project manager Rick Laubscher, and many others. Within a few years, the fledgling nonprofit Market Street Railway became a driving force supporting the conversion of the seasonal historic trolley festivals into a year–round vintage streetcar service, and Dave became more involved with the organization.
In 1988, when Maurice Klebolt died, Dave quietly assumed Maury’s place in the tiny trailer at Duboce Yard and began helping Muni with various vintage vehicle restoration projects. He was also elected to MSR’s board of directors, a position he held until his death. In 1992, Dave was awarded with a proclamation from then Mayor Frank Jordan declaring ‘David L. Pharr Day in San Francisco’ for Dave’s accomplishments as he retired from the Salvation Army. From that day forward, Dave’s passion was running the Mint Division facility, never accepting a dime of compensation for doing so. After his eight solid hours of daily work at the Mint, Dave took the F-line late every weekday afternoon to MSR’s small office in the Flood Building (next to the site of his old hot dog stand), there handling correspondence from members, returning phone messages, and handling membership renewal checks and donations.
More than a dozen vintage Muni vehicles benefited from Dave’s touch through the years, and his efforts can be seen every day on the F-line. For the past ten years, he devoted all his time to this preservation effort, supervising dozens of volunteers while continuing to perform much of the work himself. Dave was a fount of knowledge about the streetcar fleet, so much so that many maintenance leaders and workers at Muni came to depend on him for advice and counsel, which he always gave freely. He was an exceptional man in the literal sense of the word, and very modest despite his accomplishments.
Market Street Railway’s board of directors has established the Dave Pharr Memorial Fund to continue his restoration work on streetcars 162 and 798 and other cars to come. Tax–deductible donations may be sent to Market Street Railway, 870 Market Street, Suite 803, San Francisco 94102, or made here.
In the depth of his personal commitment, his deep relationships at all levels of the Muni organization, and his ability to bring disparate interests together, Dave Pharr was unique, and thus in a way irreplaceable, as John Stenson suggested. Nonetheless, Market Street Railway’s board of directors and dedicated volunteers are committed to continuing Dave’s work.
