Born: 21 February, 1961, in Whittier, California. Died: 17 August, 2008, in Venice, California, aged 47.
DUE to a freak accident at home, Dave Freeman got to do only half of the weird, wonderful or downright dangerous things he suggested to couch potatoes in his best-selling book 100 Things to Do Before You Die. But that was more than most of us will ma
nage, even in much longer lives.
The 1999 book, co-authored by his college pal Neil Teplica, spawned many an imitation, including hundreds of "100 Best" books or blogs and the 2007 Hollywood movie The Bucket List in which two terminally ill men (played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) set out to fulfil their fantasies before they "kick the bucket". Freeman had always said the message of his book was "live every day like it would be your last".
Needless to say, spending Hogmanay in Edinburgh was one of the book's suggestions, as was the Up-Helly-Aa festival in Shetland, marking the end of the yule season and featuring the torching of a replica Viking longship. It was not clear whether Freeman had experienced both events, but his father, Roy, said either his son or Teplica had done almost all "100 things" between them.
Freeman brought his advertising skills to the book's logos and graphics, which added spice to events on the list, if added spice were needed. He also came up with the guideline category headings – "grandma-friendly", such as attending the Oscar ceremony or watching Monarch butterflies end their migration in Mexico; "potential to see blood", including during a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti; or "down and dirty" at the World Bog Snorkelling Championships through a peat bog in Wales.
There were the obvious choices: the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Munich Oktoberfest of beer-swigging, the Vienna Opera Ball, Royal Ascot or the running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona in Spain. And the less obvious: the Testicle festival in Montana, not quite as frightening as it sounds since it centres around "Rocky Mountain oysters" – the testicles of (dead) sheep or bulls – or the National Hollerin' Contest to find the loudest shouter in the United States.
Freeman's own favourites were the night nude surfing contest on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, and "land diving," the original bungee jumping, on the Pacific islands of Vanuatu, using only vines attached to your ankles to break your fall.
David Stewart Freeman was born and brought up in Whittier, California. He graduated from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with a degree in urban planning in 1983. Noting the boom in advertising, he joined a local ad agency before moving to New York, eventually becoming an executive with the big Grey Advertising.
After he bumped into Teplica, an estate agent, in the mid-1990s, the two men saw the potential of the internet and websites. In 1996, they launched the prodigious website whatsgoingon.com, which guided readers to exotic locations and events and included a feature, the Coolest Place on Earth Today, which gave them the idea for their best-selling book.
The book opens by saying: "This life is a short journey. How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?"
After the book's success, the two friends shut down the website and sat back and watched the spate of increasingly outrageous imitations, such as Stroke a Martian and 99 Other Things to Do Before You Die: Plus 5 to Do Afterwards. They also faced considerable criticism over their concept, from people who said the "100 things" concept – with its "ticking off the boxes" – was subjective and restricting and discouraged travellers from seeking their own adventures.
Freeman's friends and family said his years of travel – he preferred to go alone because he felt he could cover more ground more quickly – had taken its toll on Freeman, as had the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001. Having heard the attack on the first of the Twin Towers, he had rushed to the roof of his flat in Manhattan's Chelsea district when he saw the plane fly into the second tower. It had a profound effect on him and he moved back to California to be closer to his family.
His father said he may have suffered a stroke or brain haemorrhage in his home, hitting his head on the bottom sill of a glass door. His favourite saying, according to his father, was: "We're going to the future. Do you want to come along?"
Dave Freeman is survived by his father, his stepmother and a sister. His mother died in 1995.
The full article contains 806 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
