Asher Webb, 1960-2009

During the course of a week covering the life of deceased activist and community figure Asher Webb for my article in the Dec. 3 issue of The Uniter, I felt an incredible sense of responsibility. No one else seemed to be covering it and Asher’s life became clearer and clearer as I put together the pieces of interviews and information I was able to collect. He was a man whose influence seemed to extend across the country, throughout the gay community, and into our contained downtown and Osborne Village communities. Despite never having the pleasure of meeting Asher, I felt deeply honored to be given the opportunity to report on the impact of his work.

Ken Webb, Asher’s brother, was beyond helpful in providing the kind of personal information I needed to adequately profile Asher’s life. Among the information were photos, an obituary to be published by Jay R. (with accurate dates), and tributes given at a memorial or celebration of life ceremony held at Red River College on Nov. 21.

What struck me most about Asher Webb was how he seemed to be everywhere at once in the community. He seemed to be someone who worked tirelessly for very little pay, and in multiple areas, without much substantial recognition. It is a rarity and a truly unique experience to encounter someone who works for the sake of principle or belief, regardless of the accolades involved. And it was Asher’s friends, of which there are many, that were able to give me this impression.

“Asher did things he believed in rather than furthering his own personal agenda,” said John Stinson, a former Village Clinic employee who now works as Vice President of Acute Care and Planning at Southeastman Health. “Asher was a great foot soldier, but a guy who would never take the limelight.”

It seemed that Asher was everything to everybody.

“Asher was just a really good guy,” said Kenny Boyce, director of film and cultural affairs for the City of Winnipeg. “The loss is huge because he was an advocate for everybody, an advocate for a safe and livable community.”

“Asher was a mainstay of the Village,” said Al Rae, Artistic Director of the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival. “He was always someone who was out there for support, a great loss to the business and arts community of which he cared passionately.”

When The Uniter‘s Business Manager, Maggi Robinson, found out I was writing about Asher Webb she immediately and warmly shared a memory or two, which she compiled in an email:

“Asher was working on the big launch of Glen Murray’s 1998 mayoral campaign when he contacted me about performing at the event with my band. I was singing with ‘Blues-O-Matics’ at the time with guitarist Jay Nowicki more recently of the Perpetrators. We were good but we weren’t really established. That changed after I met Asher. In his capacity as executive director of the Osborne Village BIZ, he started booking my band - in its various incarnations - annually at the Osborne Street Festival. The support of Asher and the exposure he provided for my art played a big part in my later success in the tough environment of the music business of Winnipeg. As my career moved on from music to event planning, memories of Asher’s grace and excellence in orchestrating the Osborne Street Festival continued to influence me. He was not afraid to attempt to be everywhere at once or be everyone’s everything. I continued to run into him from time to time and I remember him telling once that he and his ailing father were about to become roommates. It was the first and only time I had seen him looking a little unsure of himself. Asher was a good man and so it came as no surprise when I saw him again that he was able to report that he and his dad had worked it out.”

Asher’s brother confirmed that he had become his father’s primary care giver during the final years of his father’s life. He also shared with me that during their mother’s battle with breast cancer, Asher was instrumental in raising money for an air ambulance to take her to Winnipeg. Shortly thereafter, he also became a constant companion and patient advocate for his friend Barbara Featherstone, who had developed a liver disease. She died about a year ago. A post-mortem analysis revealed that Asher had stomach cancer at the time of his death.

The internet is expansive and accessed by everybody, so it is always interesting to find the fragments of someone’s limited, and oddly private, internet life. In Asher’s case, it is a memorialized Facebook page, a neglected Friendster, and an account with Helium, a public journalism website. Asher made only one post on Helium; a eulogy for his mother, titled “To Know My Mom is to Know Me.”

Among the anecdotes of his mom’s disposition and her exceptional cooking, Asher wrote something particularly poignant:

“One of the joys of knowing someone, is knowing that even when their time with us is over, that they live on in our lives and in fact the lives of those we touch in so many ways.”

In the words of Maggi Robinson, “Asher was an inspiration, a prince and a true a friend to Winnipeg.”