By Kyle Marksteiner
There has been a consistent theme in the outpouring of sentiment being shared over the past few days regarding the passing of former mayor Dale Janway. Mayor Janway died on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. Funeral services are pending.
Whether it was an intern, a visiting musician, a new arrival, or a corporate executive, the hundreds of sympathetic messages being relayed can best be summed up in the following manner:
“Mayor Janway made me feel welcome. Mayor Janway made me feel special.”
Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find an ambassador to any community who took his responsibilities as a host more seriously or who delighted so much in the opportunity to play such a role.
He attended birthday parties for 100-year-old residents and kindergarten graduation ceremonies with the same level of child-like enthusiasm as… in all honesty, quite a bit more than… visits to Washington, D.C., to meet with senators and cabinet secretaries.
He delighted in his role as community cheerleader. His visits with the public were not a matter of meeting some sort of mayoral obligation or duty, but they were a genuine instance of a person being exactly where he wanted to be. He wandered the halls of Carlsbad’s elementary schools, gleefully passing out water park and mini golf tickets. The man could not get a haircut without inviting every single person he saw at the barbershop to the next energy summit. (Go ahead and try to convince him that there weren’t any seats left. I dare you!)
People pick up on sincerity. Do you think the grandkids noticed when Dale Janway joined as a special guest when invited to a birthday celebration at the nursing home? Do you think they sensed that he seemed to be having the time of his life?
You’re darn right they did. And that’s also something that they’re never going to forget.
On one of his last days in office, Mayor Dale Janway was taken on a cruise through town by one of Carlsbad’s lowrider clubs. He attended rap competitions and dance-offs, again not merely out of a sense of obligation, but due to the genuine love of seeing Carlsbad’s residents thriving in their own element.
Simply put, if you were promoting a positive event or activity for Carlsbad, Dale Janway was all in.
He also loved the outdoors, and Carlsbad added numerous high-quality recreational facilities during his tenure. Once upon a time, Carlsbad did not have pickleball courts, a water park, a mini golf course or splash pads. All of those involved ribbon cuttings and welcoming any elected officials present and proclamations honoring those most intimately involved.
In one of our last conversations, Mayor Janway lamented the fact that we did not present additional city proclamations to deserving individuals during his tenure. Please keep in mind that the final few months of Mayor Janway’s final term were a veritable proclamation frenzy, with several employees devoting themselves toward an assembly line of certificates and plaques.
But there were still, in the eyes of Dale Janway, many, many more outstanding Carlsbad citizens still deserving of personal recognition. He agonized over the possibility of people feeling left out.
So, I like to think that there’s a new position in Heaven that was created just for Dale Janway. He’ll have breakfast at Heaven’s version of Mi Casita and then spend the rest of the morning positioned at the pearly gates, where he’ll welcome newcomers by handing them water park tickets and issuing proclamations.
Then it is off to Heaven’s version of the Stevens Inn, where he’ll have lunch with the likes of Bob Scholl, Gary Perkowski, Mike Currier, Janell Whitlock, and other great community backers.
And they’ll talk about a lot of things, for sure.
But mostly? They’ll talk about Carlsbad.
Marksteiner is the former public information officer for the City of Carlsbad, where he worked for Dale Janway for more than a decade.
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