That’s how David Edward Ryder has been remembered by the team campaigning to save Holgate’s Severus Hill – a group he worked alongside before his death at the age of 85.
“He would drag us up [Severus Hill] as kids, he viewed it as an opportunity to show us nature or the view,” said David’s son Stuart, who led tributes to him.
David, who died on Sunday, October 13, after a short battle with illness, lived near Severus Hill for 61 years and thought of it as a “stepping stone” to other places in the area, Stuart said. “He saw the value of it for future generations.”
On the comparison of his father to David Attenborough, Stuart said: “It’s a very good description but he would have hated it, he was a very modest man.
“But I can see why [the group] said it.”
Stuart described David, a father of two and grandfather of five, as “everyone’s friend but nobody’s fool”.
Born in Poppleton Road in 1939, David’s early years were dominated by the Second World War.
A bomb was dropped about four doors away from where the family lived during the York Blitz or Baedeker Raids.
Recommended reading:
- From emperors to unexploded bombs: a potted history of York's Severus Hill
- Setback for community bid to buy 'hidden environmental gem' in York
- £10,000 cash boost for campaign to save York's 'hidden environmental gem’
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