{image1}Milwaukee has lost a great champion and a great visionary. A. David Schwartz, owner of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, died at home yesterday after a battle with cancer. Many of us Milwaukeeans lost more than that. We lost a mentor, an inspiration, a friend.

When long-lived independent bookshops were dropping like flies across America in the face of unfathomable competition from mega-sellers like Borders and Barnes & Noble, Schwartz Bookshops -- which had outlived all its Milwaukee competitors from Casper to Desforges to Webster's and others -- bolstered its position in the community and remained remarkably viable.

It was all down to David's hard work and his dedication to his employees, who responded in kind. David used smart business practices and the Schwartz Gives Back program -- which gives donations to local non-profits based on customers' purchases -- to prove to Milwaukee how much a part of the city Schwartz Bookshops is and has been since 1927, when his father Harry opened Casanova bookshop on Downer Avenue with a partner.

In the '30s the shops moved downtown and remained there until the late 1990s when the Water and Wisconsin shop was simply no longer a viable location for an independent bookshop. But David, who was loathe to take over the shops from his father at first, was deeply committed to bookselling, to the shops his father built and to downtown. Consider that when most stores were closing downtown, David had two Schwartz shops running, in the Grand Avenue Mall and in the Iron Block Building.

I worked at the shops for 10 years, in the two downtown shops and then in the marketing department. During that time, David was always supportive, always open to new ideas and always willing to listen. Like a good father, David was stern when he needed to be, compassionate when you needed him to be.

He adored books and reading and that meant that the lure of the shops was always strong. He could always be found in the shops -- more so than in his office -- talking to customers, straightening shelves and engaging booksellers with his ubiquitous question, "what are you reading?"

In the bookselling world, David and the bookshops were well-known. Well-known for supporting independent publishers, well-known for tirelessly supporting the First Amendment (Harry Schwartz was quite active in this arena in the mid-20th century) and for success in the face of Goliath. Here, was the biblical David of the bookselling world.

David was driven and determined to help ensure the sanctity of the printed word in a world where technology was constantly moving the goalposts. But, despite his proud use of the luddite label, David was no luddite. He understood the importance of a Web site and he knew that Schwartz would have to change to keep up with the times. And he made sure it did.

David loved his garden, he loved baseball (how he became a Red Sox fan is a question for someone else, though), he loved to talk, he loved to cook and he loved good food. He loved wine and he loved Italy.

So, he understood how important my first trip to Italy was and he offered plenty of advice. He also offered $25 with the rule that at some moment on the trip when ordering a bottle of wine, I was to buy one for $25 more and bring the label back to him.

In the fortress at Siena on a sunny day, my wife and I sat down in the expansive enoteca, a place David would certainly think was heaven -- he especially loved Siena and even recommended a certain hotel there to anyone headed to Tuscany -- and we had not only a fine bottle of wine, but one of the best memories of our first visit to Italy, thanks to him.

Tonight, however, I will lift my glass to David and to the legacy he built here in Milwaukee and to the lessons he taught me every day for 10 years. And I will miss him.

There will be a memorial service at 6 p.m. on Friday at David's beloved Schwartz Bookshop, 4093 N. Oakland Ave. in Shorewood. Memorials suggested to Community Shares and to American Booksellers for Free Expression.