'Newmarket is tattooed on my soul': Once Canada's longest-serving councillor, Dave Kerwin dies

Kerwin recently had trip of a lifetime with wife of 55 years

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 8, 2023
Lisa Queen

When Dave Kerwin retired from Newmarket council in 2018, he was celebrated as Canada’s longest-serving councillor.

“Newmarket is tattooed on my soul,” he said at the time.

The former Ward 2 councillor and former teacher at Huron Heights and Thornhill secondary schools and on a Canadian Armed Forces base in Germany, who always had a smile on his face, died suddenly Feb. 6 at the age of 84.

He had played tennis earlier in the day and didn’t feel well, his wife of 55 years, Erika, said.

She described her husband as a positive soul.

The couple had recently had “the trip of a lifetime” from Uruguay on a ship for three weeks to Antarctica and then five weeks visiting national parks in South America.

“It was just wonderful,” Erika said.

They were planning their next big adventure.

“We just have to remember him the way he was. He was a great teacher. I have only had really, really good remarks from his former students,” she said.

“He cared and he was so honest.”

Kerwin was first elected in 1976 and served until 1994. He was elected again in 1997 and served until his retirement.

Shocked by his sudden death, his former council colleagues praised Kerwin for his decades of service to the community.

“Dave made an incredible contribution to the town of Newmarket in his roughly 40 years of public service,” Mayor John Taylor said.

“His dedication and passion for the town he loved showed how much he was a friend of Newmarket. He will be remembered for being so full of life and light.”

Coun. Bob Kwapis, who considered Kerwin a very good friend, said he will be sorely missed.

Kerwin was an avid tennis player and loved walking. He volunteered teaching English at the Newmarket Public Library to help immigrants get settled, Kwapis said.

“Dave Kerwin was a friend of Newmarket,” he said.

“He had the best of Newmarket at heart. He strictly focused on making Newmarket better. He was a family man.”

Kerwin leaves behind Erika, sons Mark and Mike and grandchildren Zack, Nyn, Lila and Gita.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be made.