The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 50, November 27, 2005, Article 15

MORE ON BILL SPENGLER

Russ Rulau writes: "I learned of Bill Spengler's passing
through The E-Sylum.  It troubles me greatly. I've known
Bill as one of the finest gentlemen in our hobby for many
years, and he and I were together on several numismatic
study tours in Europe.

In 1969 Bill was a member of our small (20 people) tour
group that visited Bern for the International Numismatic
Congress, along with such luminaries as Miguel Munoz,
Ken Bressett, Grover Criswell and others. After Bern we
toured Paris, London and Oxford, meeting numismatists all
the way.

My wife Darlene and I lunched with Bill in a small cafe
on the Champs Elysee  -- Chinese food. Bill pulled a very
memorable joke that has stuck with me these 36 years. He
said he opened a fortune cookie once, and the message
inside said, "Help! Help! I'm a prisoner in a Chinese
fortune cookie factory."

Later, at the Ashmolean Museum coin cabinet in Oxford,
he displayed his knowledge of south Asian coins better
than the curators.

In the summer of 1993, 22 Americans including Bill,
myself, Bob Julian, David Bloch, Hal Blackburn, Emil
Ilko, Bob Barrett, Irving Berlin (of Texas) and others
put together a 3-week tour of the Soviet Union. Landing
in Leningrad we visited the Hermitage collection; in
Odessa we met with local collectors just forming a
coin club; then Mineralnye Vodyi in the Caucasus; off
to Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand, finishing up in
Moscow. Bill spoke Russian as did our Intourist (no
doubt KGB) guide/translators.

Bill at that time had a summer home in Rural, Wis.,
Just 20 miles or so south of Iola, so he visited Krause
Publications frequently. He was a great guy -- almost
everyone who knew him say that."

Bill Rosenblum writes: "More than a few of you have
asked me if their is a something we can do in Bill
Spengler's name. I spoke with his widow, Phid, earlier
this week. First of all she is doing quite well as she
has a very good support system with two sons in the
area plus a number of organizations she belongs to.

She suggested a few of Bill's causes: South Asian
Earthquake Relief which can be contacted at Worldvision.com
or unicefusa.org. Also she mentioned Pikes Peak Hospice
at Pikespeakhospice.org. Of course a donation to the
ANA in Bill's name would also be appropriate. I think
that Rita and I personally will make a donation to the
Pikes Peak Hospice as they not only helped Bill and
his family but three years ago we lost a very close
friend to cancer and they were amazingly supportive
to his widow, his family and friends.  Obviously you must
do what you feel is correct."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum