Milestones

The beginning of 2023 was difficult for Sandpoint as a community, with the loss of four icons of the area, people who left an indelible mark on our community soul.

Dan Young—known as Bashful Dan far and wide—was one of those who get involved in their community. It’s hard to imagine an event that he wasn’t somehow a part of, generally standing on the back of a truck trailer blasting out tunes. “Y’all ready for this?”

If nothing else, it’s likely you knew Bashful Dan as the indefatigable DJ for the annual Lost in the ’50s street dance. But Dan, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was also a long-term talk show host for local radio; the former owner/operator of Rainbow Realty in town; one of the most well-known faces of the area’s Republican party for decades; the go-to DJ for uncountable high school dances; and an emcee at just about every event held in town. In the VA hospital for over a year, his last post on Facebook read, “Remember, if I ever told you I loved you, I meant forever and ever amen.” Dan, a Governor’s Brightest Star in 2004 and Sandpoint Citizen of the Year in 2005, was 68 when he died.

Valle Novak left us the day before she was to turn 93. She was born in nearby Chilco and grew up hunting, cooking and gardening. She became a master gardener, a master naturalist, and superb cook—skills she shared through her day job of almost 40 years as a writer and columnist for the Daily Bee.

When she moved to Sandpoint she joined the Daily Bee staff, where a young reporter, Chris Bessler, worked with her in the early 1980s. Bessler, now publisher of Sandpoint Magazine, lived for a short spell in a tiny cabin on rural property Novak owned on Wrenco Loop.

“She drove a Toyota Land Cruiser in those days, which was basically required equipment to get in and out of the place,” Bessler said. “She was a quintessential Idaho woman.” He noted she was also an animal lover, an inveterate reader, and a traveler who took delight in spending time in other cultures. “Valle was as mutli-faceted as they come.” Woman of Wisdom, world adventurer, and a now dearly missed mother and grandmother,

Novak left shoes that no one’s likely to fill.

With a slightly stooped frame, endearing grin, and a wild head of hair, Erik Daarstad was a familiar face around town, and at the Panida Theater. The Academy-award-winning cinematographer was an indefatigable supporter of theatrical efforts large and small. After a lifetime making documentaries throughout the world, he filmed “Sandpoint at the North End of the Long Bridge,” telling our town’s story; he also wrote an autobiography, “Through the Lens of History.”

Born in Norway in 1935, at the age of 7, his country under German occupation, he watched British bombers drop their payload on the mine where his father was at work. His dad was killed. His mother would die by the time he was 15. He became enthralled with films, and came to the U.S. in 1954 to learn how to make them at the University of Southern California. And that’s what he did, covering subjects ranging from biologist Jane Goodall, to the workings of the White House under then-President Nixon, to the Oglala Sioux Sun Dance on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He filmed documentaries on movie stars and musicians worldwide.

He moved to Sandpoint in the 1970s, and observed that a main attraction was “the friendliness and how helpful people are to them and to one another”—qualities he reflected in his own life.

By any measure, Jack Parnell led an illustrious life. It was one that reached from his young days in California working in various ways within the livestock industry, to the halls of power in Washington D.C. as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and eventually to Idaho where he raised championship Clydesdales at his Parnell Ranch in the Selle Valley.

His accomplishments as a businessman, public servant, rancher and family man provided the experiences from which, in his 80s, he wrote three books for children sharing his philosophy and deep faith. “My Name is Ramsey,” told the story of his reallife Clydesdale that became a champion through perseverance, while his two books on “The Old Apple Tree” shared his insights on acceptance and compassion. Jack Parnell died in April at age 87, but his life and books leave a legacy that will continue.