Death of ‘Capt. Don’ a loss to all fishermen
07:22 AM EDT on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
By TOM MEADE
Journal Sports Writer
When a Yankee fisherman says “finest kind,” he can mean many things. He may be expressing total agreement or appreciation, or he may be describing a blessing or an incomparable person.
Don Cameron, a former commercial fisherman out of Gloucester, Mass., used the expression with discretion.
“Captain Don” died over the weekend after a battle with cancer. He was 68.
He and his wife, Bonnie, had celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary on Valentine’s Day at their home in Stonington, Conn., as they made plans to reopen Captain Don’s Bait & Tackle in Charlestown this spring.
Few people knew his surname or his interests beyond sport fishing, but Captain Don was well known to commercial fishermen in New England, Alaska, Africa, and to people in need.
He was raised in Rockport, Mass., the son of Marion and Ralph Fisher, and served as a member of the submarine service during the Vietnam War. After earning his master’s degree in the Navy, Captain Don taught culinary arts and other subjects at Central High School in Providence.
Later, he was the skipper of a dragger out of Gloucester.
He managed the Viking Marina in Westerly in 1989, and a year later, he and his wife opened Captain Don’s Bait & Tackle in Dunn’s Corners in Westerly.
“I would spend many, many nights in Don’s shop when he was at Dunn’s Four Corners,” said Bill Nolan on the Web site
www.stripersonline.com. “It was great to get a warm bowl of chili or his awesome stew in the wee hours of a fall night. He was a great guy and extremely gracious to everyone he came in contact with. People like him left a lasting impression even if you only met him once.”
Captain Don left the bait-shop business for a while to work as an executive officer aboard factory ships out of Alaska and Africa.
Five years ago, he and a new business partner, John P. Watts, opened a new Captain Don’s Bait & Tackle store in Charlestown. John died last April.
The store, at the intersection of Routes 216 and 1, often had a rooster on the counter. The bird had been living with a harem of hens behind the shop when the business opened, and later, the rooster would walk in and perch on the counter, next to an ever-present gallon jar.
The jar’s purpose was to collect money for one of Captain Don’s personal fund-raising campaigns to help a widow, an orphan overseas or the Christian Academy in North Stonington, Conn. He was a member of the board there.
One of the forums on stripersonline.com is filled with messages about Captain Don’s generosity, sharing his time and fishing knowledge. He wanted to help everyone to catch fish. (Bonnie and her son, Jarred, plan to reopen the store.)
When he wasn’t working or raising money for others, Captain Don was hunting big game in Alaska or fishing on Long Island Sound.
He kept his catch, filleted it and packaged it. Then, Captain Don would drive through rural Connecticut, stopping at the homes of elderly shutins to deliver fresh fish and the harvest from his vegetable garden.
Captain Don was the finest kind.
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