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Dave Stark is among the most well-connected and well-informed people in the Tri-Valley.
As chief public affairs and communications officer for the Bay East Association of Realtors, he presents in front of many audiences. And he’s someone we turn to time and time again for a strong, engaging column on the local market.
I enjoy his monthly real estate “weather report” newsletters and his social media posts highlighting his public appearances and personal happenings. A Facebook video of his late last year stopped my scrolling thumb in its tracks: Stark shared that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he urged his followers to get screened.
“It was life-changing. Absolutely. More specifically, it instantly changed my priorities. Instantly. Whatever I had been worried about. Whatever had on my mind was instantly erased,” Stark, 57, told me when we sat down over bowls of udon and then cups of coffee at City Center Bishop Ranch last Friday.
I reached out to learn more about his story, and see if he’d let me tell it to our audience, because prostate cancer is one I know all too well – my dad, uncle and late grandfather all having faced the disease.
“I want to be perfectly clear about this. I really appreciate you asking. Absolutely appreciate it. And frankly I’m honored that you’re curious about my journey. And you can quote me on that,” Stark said with his trademark sincerity.
He had been getting tested regularly since about 50 years old.
“What generated this was my PSA scores started to get into a range that my doctor, very wisely, recommended additional testing. I was exhibiting zero symptoms,” he said. “I consider myself pretty fit, I live as healthy a lifestyle as possible, that’s enabled in large part by Anne, my wife.”
Stark was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer last August.
He remains in the active surveillance stage, medically, but acknowledges, “It’s pretty much inevitable that I will have to have some kind of procedure or treatment.”
He’s made a variety of physical, emotional and spiritual changes upon digesting the news – going from a “pretty clean” diet to “very clean”, putting personal and professional things in better perspective and trying to be more mindful in life.
Still, Stark felt compelled to do more.
“Because I’m at an early stage and because I don’t have symptoms, it was a bit hard for me to wrap my mind around this. But, bottom line is I have cancer,” Stark said. “So in processing this, I thought: What am I going to do with this diagnosis?”
He talked with colleagues who’d had cancer and his care team.
“One of the things I learned very early on is there is some controversy around getting diagnosed; you know, getting tested,” Stark said. “So I asked … hey, maybe that’s what I could ‘do’ with this diagnosis, use it as an impetus to encourage others to get tested. And they said yeah that would be a really good thing to do.”
“We are operating, though, in an environment that is a social and political environment that is critical of both science and medicine,” he continued. “And the risk of making this overly political, I felt you know what, I need to do something to address this moment in time where people may not get tested because they’re skeptical of both science or medicine.
“Even if I don’t agree with someone politically or ideologically, I want them to be around as long as they can. And no matter what someone’s position is on science or medicine, this is something that – getting tested, getting screened for cancer – is something I believe everyone should do.”
Stark has looked for opportunities to strike up conversations, hear people’s perspectives and share his message of the importance of cancer screening. That’s what inspired him to post a video on Facebook to share his story and encourage others to act mere weeks after his own diagnosis.
“If you think about how a sailboat can capture a wind that is coming from a certain direction and turn that into a course that may not be in the same direction in the wind. It’s, how do I leverage this to go in a positive direction, both for me and for others as well,” he told me.
Sailing was a favorite pastime of my grandpa, the original Francis Walsh. I went out on the water with him a few times in high school, but our bigger connection was golf. We hit the course most weeks during my early teenage years and summers in college.
Grandpa Fran had prostate cancer my entire life. He was diagnosed at 47 years old, having the major removal surgery in 1984. But the disease persisted. I remember him seemingly always being in trials and treatments – though he seldom talked specifics or side effects – while also living his best life in retirement.
He fought a remarkable fight for more than half a century before the cancer finally settled into his bones and took over for good. He died three weeks before his 75th birthday in 2012.
My dad was diagnosed about two months after his 58th birthday. Sudden and stark urinary pain one day in 2023 led to the discovery of prostate cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes in the area and a speck on the pubic bone.
He had remarkable results with a treatment of targeted radiation and hormone therapy undertaken in 2024 (once the prolonged insurance side of things played out). I’m proud of all he and his wife endured with their grueling daily routine of work in the morning, for him in construction usually in Napa or Sonoma counties, before rushing into San Francisco for the last treatment slot of the afternoon.
Dad’s numbers continue to look great here in 2026, although his follow-ups aren’t exactly as envisioned after funding was cut for the program.
His older brother was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.
Now as I approach a future hoping I haven’t passed to my remarkable 4-year-old Francis what I joke (uncomfortably) is the “Walsh prostate”, I’ll be watching myself for potential symptoms and getting tested when time.
My general practitioner tells me that Kaiser would start screenings for me 10 years from the age my father was diagnosed, even though he was older than his father was. So I can expect to give blood and bend over routinely in just over a decade.
I followed Stark’s face as I described the Walsh family history with prostate cancer – every wince, eye roll and smile showing an emotional connection to my experience.
After all, he sees such personal interactions as among the most productive and inspirational, and why he has been engaging others for the past few months.
“I’m in the advocacy business … The most effective way to inform either voters or policymakers is 1-on-1 contact. Because I know that, my advocacy work in this space has been on a very intimate basis. It’s individual conversations with people,” Stark said. “It’s remarkable how many people have said, ‘Hey, thanks for reminding me.'”
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
