During every Winter Carnival, “Santa” would set up a hot plate on the cold concrete outside the Pioneer Press building in downtown St. Paul, cooking soup, cracking jokes and keeping the cold air festive in the wait for the next Treasure Hunt clue.
Dave Young, known as “Santa Dave” for his white beard, bellowing laugh and boundless optimism, died Monday in the company of fellow treasure hunters at Major’s bar and restaurant in Inver Grove Heights.
He collapsed unexpectedly into the lap of his good friend Jake Ingebrigtson, who was the first 2007 Treasure Hunt winner.
“We were playing trivia. … Of course he won every game,” Ingebrigtson said.
“He is a fixture of the treasure hunters, and he’ll be missed by a lot of people,” said Jesse Anibas, who wrote the “Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt History.”
Young, 65, could have made a long list of the good people he’d met in St. Paul: He delivered pizzas in the Twin Cities for 26 years on top of doing standup comedy at local venues with the likes of Louie Anderson, friends said.
He had a host of other jobs: school bus driver, short-wave radio operator, occasional WCCO radio personality – and, of course, a Santa-for-hire.
“You couldn’t be with him without really believing in Santa Claus, because that’s who he was,” said Terry Valentine, who, along with Young, was a founding member of the Cooler Crew treasure hunting team.
“There were times things weren’t going so well for him, job-wise – but there wasn’t anything he wasn’t willing to try. You asked how he was doing, and he’d always say ‘fabulous,’ ” Valentine said.
Come treasure-hunting time, Young dressed conspicuously light, in a simple shirt and pants, and his signature hat with earflaps.
“Santa Dave” was apparently never perturbed by the cold, friends said: “He dressed more from fall … but I never remember him having to warm up,” Ingebrigtson said.
For fun, Valentine noted, Young flew small Cessna-class planes and drove around “pretty old jalopies” filled with “stuff” – newspapers, clothes, computer parts (and, during the hunt, shovels and rakes) – “You name it, he could find it in there,” Valentine said.
“He was a little bit of a pack rat. Actually a lot,” Valentine added. “A lot of people would say, ‘Gee, is he living in there?’ That was the way he was; he never apologized for it.”
His license plates always carried his ham radio call letters: KOIZD. He participated in the Treasure Hunts for the same reason he talked on the radio and attended every day of the Minnesota State Fair: to socialize.
“There wasn’t anyplace you could go where you wouldn’t run into somebody he knew. He had friends in every port,” Valentine said.
Raised in Brewster, in southwestern Minnesota, Young was a 1960 graduate of Brewster High School. He lived in New Brighton for much of his life before moving to Princeton a year or two ago.
He was one of the featured stars of the 2005 documentary film “No Time for Cold Feet.”
He is survived by a sister, Martha Young. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Tad Vezner can be reached at tvezner@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5461.
