By David Rolland
Some 250 people Sunday gathered at Laird's Landing to remember their friend Clayton Lewis, an artist and fisherman who died of cancer Sept. 15.
Arriving in a flotilla of boats, including large sailboats, small motor boats, kayaks, and even a steam engine-powered skiff, most of the throng crossed Tomales Bay to reach Lewis' remote home.
For hours, children took turns riding on several tree swings while their parents and other adults ate, drank, and talked about their lost friend.
"You died with great dignity and perfection," said Dogtown's Richard Kirschman, in an eloquent tribute to Lewis that began two hours of moving and often humorous eulogies.
Using the front porch of Lewis' art studio as a stage, a long line of friends told stories and shared anecdotes, sang songs and read poetry for the popular and cantankerous Lewis.
"Nobody ever says, 'Let's hear it for the herring,'" she remembered Lewis saying. Noyes then played a song on banjo she had written about Marshall's past herring festivals.
"Clayton was a role model, mainly as someone who was committed to what he was doing," said Point Reyes Station's John Boestrom, who then played an Irish fiddle song.
Peter Worsley of Point Reyes Station urged the Park Service to think twice before removing any of the old Miwok Indian structures at Laird's Landing, some of which are estimated to date back to the 1830s.
He recalled a day when he saw Lewis in front of the Bovine Bakery and asked him to watch over his young son Sandy while he went inside. By the time he returned, Curth said, Lewis had "introduced Sandy to 10 or 20 people as his own grandson."
San Anselmo third-grade teacher John Seligman recounted a hilarious story in which Lewis demonstrated for Seligman's class the seining net, an traditional method of fishing he practiced until his final weeks.
Seligman said his students were at the same time dumbstruck by Lewis' liberal use of profanity and awestruck by the large numbers of fish the aging fisherman could catch and return to the bay without hurting them.
He said Lewis offered the children a rare chance to watch the drama of wildlife play out before their eyes when a seven-gilled shark arrived that day and gobbled up a school of perch swimming at the surface.
And Olema outdoorsman Joe Slattery, one of Lewis' closest friends and a frequent fishing partner, fought back tears as he told the crowd about experiences he shared with Lewis, and urged protection of the bay he loved.
Friends and family of Lewis will now continue his dream of creating a the Clayton Lewis Foundation, which they hope will provide educational tours of the bay, from both an artistic and scientific perspective.
They have accepted an offer from San Francisco boat builder Billy Martinelli to use his 49-seat replica of an old scow schooner to lead tours of Tomales Bay.
On Sunday, Oct. 15, the schooner will be docked at Indian Beach when organizers of the foundation will hold a public demonstration of Lewis' seining net, a party including live entertainment, and a barbecue. The demonstration is set for 11:30 a.m.