On the morning of August 7, 1998, I had breakfast in a hotel in Portland Oregon. I believe other NBS board members were present. In walked Robert and Marjorie Hendershott. I greeted Bob and wished him a happy 100th birthday. He lived until March 22, 2005.

At one time Robert Hepworth Lloyd was the oldest ANA member, the one with the longest membership, or both. He lived from May 18, 1906, to October 10, 2009.

I never met Nellie Tayloe Ross. She lived from November 29, 1876, until December 19, 1977.

Two I can think of are William S. Dewey, P.E. (1905-2006) and Robert L. Hendershott (1898-2005) Both were not only numismatists, but numismatic writers as well.

Bill had a long numismatic career. He was the ANA Librarian during the 1930s at a time when the library was kept in the librarian's home. In 1940, Bill was a member of a seven man committee that compiled and published the 194-page comprehensive index to the first 51 volumes of ANA's periodical, The Numismatist. The committee consulted Sydney P. Noe, compiler of the 1917 index to The American Journal of Numismatics, and its index followed Noe's format.

Bill formed an impressive collection of medals of Admiral George Dewey, a distant relative, and published a catalog of them in The Numismatist along with many other articles. In 1984 he received a first place literary award from the Society of Paper Money Collectors for his four part study of the widely collected railroad scrip issued by Samuel A. and William S. Torrey of Manchester Township, New Jersey. Bill received a presidential award from ANA in 1994 and a Krause Numismatic Ambassador award in 1987. In addition to his articles,

Bill published two books about the history and numismatic issues of businesses in Ocean County, New Jersey, where he resided in his later years. I had the pleasure of working with Bill on an article about the paper scrip of the Bergen Iron Works, published in 1998. SPMC awarded us a pair of glass mugs for that article, which you see us breaking in with a refreshing drink of sparkling cider (the alcohol free kind) at his home.

I was introduced to Robert Hendershott by John Wilson at the ANA convention in New York in 2002. He was very frail by then, but offered to autograph my copy of his book, The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, which he had actually attended as a young boy. Robert had published this 365-page book in 1994 at the age of 96. The foreword was written by none other than that young kid, Eric P. Newman. Since Robert had already autographed the book for a prior owner, Jim Marino, I declined his offer, but did enjoy a brief visit with him in the relaxed atmosphere of the ANA life members room.

Edward Gans (1887-1991), who was a partner with Henry Grunthal in the auction firm of Grunthal & Gans, and Numismatic Fine Arts (1947-1961) reached above the age of 100 in 1987, and was presented a citation by the American Numismatic Society when he reached that milestone. There is some nice info on Gans on the Leo Baeck institute site. See: www.archive.org/details/eduardgansfamily00reel02 . Henry Grunthal lived to the age of 95 or 96 (1905-2001).

I enjoyed this week's issue as usual. The tributes to Eric Newman were great. He really is an amazing man. I remember at an ANA convention, a group of us including Eric were talking, and he remarked that when he had arrived there was a problem with his hotel reservation, and at first, there was no room for him. Someone said, Well, "...you could have roomed with John Ford." Everyone got a laugh, and even Eric smiled.

On the 100 year old collectors, John was probably thinking of George Marlier, and Edward Gans. I know of one other, ANA member Dr Jesse Green who died at 103 years. He picture is in the Sept 1920 Numismatist on page 402.

I think next year Catherine Bullowa will be 100 ! She still had a table at the NYINC, and CICF this year, and perhaps Chicago's ANA...this summer.