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PROFILE: Passion for local history fuels prolific author

While juggling work, swimming and various other interests, Dave Town has managed to write 17 books

Competition has been a constant in Dave Town’s life, so his ambition comes as no surprise, even as he seems to be trying to one-up himself.

He is always striving to be the best at what he does, whether it’s swimming, writing about local history or trying to make people feel better through his role as a chiropractor.

Town was born and raised in Orillia, where his family has deep roots. He’s a fourth-generation Orillian.

His great-grandfather took on a number of jobs. He was a constable, a volunteer firefighter and a roads worker for the town.

Town’s grandfather, Duncan, had the entrepreneurial spirit that would be inherited by future generations of the family, as he started Town’s Jewellers, which is still operating on Mississaga Street.

Town’s dad became an optometrist and started his own practice, which is now run by Town’s brother.

It makes sense that Town, too, would follow a similar path.

“I came out of high school wanting to be a chiropractor,” he said. “I liked the idea of health care, but I didn’t want to be the guy prescribing drugs.”

He earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of Toronto and followed that up with four years of chiropractic school before launching Town Chiropractic in 1990.

He is a man of many interests, however, and not one to sit still.

He comes from an athletic family and loves to swim. He’s pretty good at it, too.

He’s been swimming competitively since he was a young boy, and he began breaking provincial records at age 14.

He had Olympic aspirations while on the swim team in university.

“I had a legitimate shot at it but didn’t quite make it. I always found myself racing behind the top guys,” he said of his competitors, some of whom held world records. “I was the one who kept those guys honest.”

While he didn’t make it to the Olympics, Town has left his mark on the sport. He was a finalist at national championships a number of times, placed sixth in the 1981 World University Games in Romania and picked up bronze at an event in Israel. He also got the opportunity to swim with the Canadian national team in London, England, during a tri-meet with the British and Russians.

Last year, he was honoured by his hometown when he was inducted in the Orillia Sports Hall of Fame.

He is still training and competing in master’s swimming. He’s 60 years old, which means he’s the young guy in his age category.

“There’s a host of records I could break if I could train and race,” said Town, who has broken four world records.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left him with few options for training in a proper pool, so he built a swim bench that allows him to mimic swimming strokes at home. He uses it every other day for 45 minutes. He also swam in Lake Couchiching last summer.

“It’s not the same as a pool, but it’s something,” he said.

Town said he has three main passions: swimming, canoe trips, and writing about local history.

The latter is relatively new. While he has always been interested in history, he began researching and writing about it at age 40.

His first book was Building Character: Stories from Orillia’s Remarkable YMCA, released in 2008. It was 10 years in the making. He began researching in 1998, while he was chair of the local YMCA’s board of directors.

Since then, he has published another 16 books.

“I just keep finding more and more things I want to research and write about,” he said.

Town has also written about the 1907 Orillia lacrosse team, riots in Brechin and Orillia, the Orillia Younkers hockey team and an incident that marked “the beginning of Orillia’s end as an industrial town.”

His next book will tell the tale of the Black Swamp Gang, a group of men and women centred around the Oro-Medonte village of Jarratt who “were terrorizing Orillia and the area” in the 1870s and 1880s.

Town hopes his books feed people’s appetite for local history, or perhaps spark an interest in someone.

“A very small portion of the populace has an interest in local history. My goal is getting those people interested,” he said. “It’s all in finding stories that are interesting. If I can tell an interesting story and tell it well, anyone can enjoy it.”

He has come to appreciate how many tales can be told about this area’s past.

“I’m fortunate to have grown up in Orillia. As a historian, what a gold mine for me,” he said.

He doesn’t intend to stop mining any time soon.

“I’m fascinated to see how much I can get done before I can’t do it anymore,” he said.

Find out more about the prolific author’s books here.


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Nathan Taylor

About the Author: Nathan Taylor

Nathan Taylor is the desk editor for Village Media's central Ontario news desk in Simcoe County and Newmarket.
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