If you have spent time in San Diego, there’s a good chance you ran into the firm’s co-founder, Dave Nuffer. Up until his death in February 2011, he was a regular fixture in the NST office. From serenading the staff at Monday morning meetings to playing the ukulele at our company retreats, Dave was quite the character. He was also a pioneer in public relations in the San Diego region, having started NST back in 1974. He served on several community organizations’ board of directors and participated in San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders’ ad hoc advisory committee of community leaders. In recognition of his successful public relations career, Dave received numerous awards, including: PRSA San Diego’s Professional of the Year in 1988, PRSA San Diego’s Eva Irving Community Service Award in 1993, PRSA San Diego’s Otto Bos Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 and the University of Redlands’ Career Achievement Award in 2009.

Besides being a “PR guy,” Dave had a strong interest in Ernest Hemingway. His enthusiasm for Hemingway began with the reading of “Death in the Afternoon,” which he deemed the best treatise on bullfighting ever written. He’s collected first editions of nearly all of the author’s books, and has visited more than 160 Hemingway-related sites in Canada, Cuba, Europe, and the U.S., including places the author was born, lived, worked and died. Dave wrote two books: “The Walkable Feast – Five Café-to-Café Walks to the Places of Ernest Hemingway in His Early Years in Paris,” published in 1999 and “The Best Friend I Ever Had – Revelations About Ernest Hemingway From Those Who Knew Him,” published in 2008.