Wick Allison, the longtime publisher and founder of Dallas' D Magazine, died Tuesday night after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to the magazine.
Allison died while on a fishing trip in New York, an annual retreat he took with his wife and daughters. He was 72.
In an obituary published on their website, D Magazine Editor Tim Rogers recalled the magazine's origin story, about how Wick founded the magazine in 1974, and later sold it only to come back and reclaim it, but also revealed more about how the publisher's own demanding, brash personality and vision often brought out the best in those around him.
"What he demanded was always too much, and that demand brought out the best in those who could keep up," Rogers wrote.
Rogers also revealed Allison had been diagnosed with bladder cancer about a decade ago, a fact not known to many including some of his own employees.
"As the complications multiplied and his hair and hearing left him, he kept putting in the work. Yes, he flagged, but he never complained. Not that we heard anyway," Rogers wrote, adding that Allison fought his illness with grace and, in the last few years, even softened.
According to our partners at The Dallas Morning News, "Allison ... spent his final days at his beloved second home in Craigie Clair, in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, the place along the Beaverkill River where he would go to fish and relax, with his wife, Christine, and their daughters."
Funeral plans are to be determined. His family told The Dallas Morning News his ashes would be buried in a clearing on his property in New York. The family asks those who wish to make a donation do so in Wick’s name to the St. Vincent de Paul Society at Holy Trinity Church.
Over at D Magazine, remembrances are being collected in the comments where those who knew Wick are sharing their stories.
