Dave Piszcz

WERU Loses Another One

From Village Soup:

BELFAST (Aug 21): Veteran journalist Dave Piszcz, 54, died Monday in Belfast, apparently from the cancer that forced him to leave his job as a reporter last spring.

The public is invited to attend a memorial service at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Crabiel-Riposta Funeral Home, 182 Waldo Ave., Belfast.

Piszcz was found dead in the driver's seat of his car on Church Street shortly after 2:30 p.m. Two youths sitting in front of the Opera House reported to police that the driver of a car parked in front of them was "not doing well."

Patrolman Howard Dakin walked across the street from the police station and found Piszcz slumped at the wheel of his Subaru.

Dakin said he reviewed a surveillance camera aimed across Church Street from the station and saw Piszcz pull into the parking space at 1:10 p.m. He dropped off some movies at Opera House Video, Dakin said, and returned to the vehicle.

The film showed the brake lights of the car coming on at 1:20 p.m., and they remained on until police and emergency personnel responded.

Dakin said he spoke with Piszcz's long-time partner, Claudia Luchetti, who told him Piszcz had dropped her off at the hospital in the early afternoon. He planned to do some errands before picking her up, Dakin said.

Piszcz was an award-winning reporter and columnist for The Republican Journal and a long-time radio voice on community station WERU. With his abundant red hair and raspy, often humorous voice, he was a colorful presence in Waldo County.

In his columns and his radio show, called "Talking Furniture," he mixed counter-cultural messages with observations about local life. He was also a dedicated reporter who could sit through five-hour City Council meetings and emerge with a quip or two.

In April, Piszcz experienced such extreme back pain that he went to his Searsmont home to recuperate. He finally saw a doctor when his noncommercial remedies didn't work, and he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare and often deadly cancer of the blood plasma.

In an interview published in the Citizen last month, Piszcz conceded the pain he was experiencing despite the use of high-powered medications.

"I have this alien invader I have to deal with," he said. "It's hard to describe. The quality of pain I feel now is different from an injury. I've broken bones, driven things into my body, but this is different. This is more integral to your structure; it's in there deep. We're married now, myeloma and me."

Piszcz was being treated for his cancer at a Waterville hospital. At the time of the interview, he had cancer in 20 percent of his bone marrow. "Gone are the days," he said, "when I said give me some more Ibuprofen and I'll ignore this [pain]."

He had endured radiation treatments, steroid injections and doses of thalidomide and was preparing for a stem cell transplant.

Piszcz was also a carpenter and a musician and a contrarian. The bumper sticker on his car was a takeoff on the familiar "DARE" anti-drug message. "DARE to think for yourself," it read.

Piszcz leaves Luchetti and their son, Gabe, a recent Belfast Area High School graduate who attends Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

Memorial contributions may be made to WERU, Attn: Matt Murphy, P.O. Box 170, Orland 04472.

August 23, 2006