Global Ganja Report

"Diamond" Dave Whitaker, a local legend and longtime counterculture figure in San Francisco, died March 2 at the age of 88. Long known as the "mayor of Haight Street," Whitaker was an organizer of underground poetry readings, pirate radio broadcasts, and countless other hippie-spirited events, keeping alive the flame of the city's vibrant 1960s scene for new generations of youth.

Whitaker first arrived in the city from Minnesota in 1957, and was part of the beatnik milieu in North Beach before being on hand for the hippie explosion in Haight-Ashbury a decade later. In his final years, he squatted in a converted warehouse near the Alemany Farmer’s Market in the south of the city.

According to legend, during a stint back in his native Minnesota in 1961, Whitaker befriended a youthful Bob Dylan, and was the first to introduce him to the music and writings of Woody Guthrie—thereby earning a significant, little-acknowledged impact on American culture. He is also said to have got Dylan high on cannabis for the first time. (48Hills)

Image: Gabreila Remy via The Guardsman