[Tweeters] Dan Victor, founder of Tweeters

[Hal Opperman via Tweeters]

Dan Victor, who founded Tweeters in 1992, passed away earlier this year at the age of 85. It was Dan who established the “broad tent” ethos of the Tweeters list, fostering discussion across a wide range of topics, activities, and interests related to birds, birding, and the natural world, which he guided from the background with quiet wisdom and a steady hand up until his retirement from active duty four or five years ago.

Older members among us from around Puget Sound will have had the pleasure of knowing Dan personally, from encounters in the field and through activities of the Seattle Audubon Society, Washington Ornithological Society, and other outdoor and conservation organizations he participated in. Professionally, Dan was an acquisitions librarian in the University of Washington Libraries. I first met him at the informal campus birders’ bag lunches held regularly at the UW Medical Center. Our friendship deepened through membership in the first class of Seattle Audubon’s Master Birder program (1988-1989). That class was a tightly knit bunch, birding together long afterwards. Most joined Tweeters early on, and many are still on board today. 

Tweeters began as an outgrowth of the UW bag lunch group, with three people sharing messages about bird sightings on a distribution list Dan managed on his own computer. By February 1994 the list had swelled to an unwieldy hundred-plus addresses, and with the support of a birder colleague in the Internet Technology Department, Dan transformed Tweeters into an open, two-way email list running on a UW server as a public service. Circulation boomed. For the next couple of decades, with Dan in the wheelhouse, Tweeters served as the main stem of the information system for Washington's birding community, reaching an audience of thousands with up to 30 or 40 postings per day. Preserved in the Tweeters archive thanks to the Washington Ornithological Society (https://tweetersarchives.org/), these postings document the people, places, events, ideas, and of course the bird sightings, that compose the story of birding around Washington literally day to day. 

Although traffic volume is much lower now (thankfully, perhaps), Tweeters still has about as many members as before, and holds a unique and valued place among the greatly expanded array of media outlets for birders. Browse or search through the archives to begin to realize the importance of Dan’s contribution to the birding community. Tweeters is an enduring part of his life legacy. 

You may visit Dan's obituary at https://obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/daniel-victor-1089881381

Thanks, old friend. Please join me in raising our binocs in tribute.

Hal Opperman
Seattle
hal at catharus dot net