FRED LAKE (1929-2016)

Alan Workman writes:

Fred Lovett Lake III of St. Petersburg, Florida died on December 25, 2016 at the Bay Pines Veterans Administration Hospital. He is survived by his loving wife, Joan Lawton Lake. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 22, 1929. His Mother was Myrtle (Bobbe) Jane Robertson and his Father was Fred L. Lake. Jr. His grandfather, Fred L. Lake once managed the Boston Red Sox (1908-1909). Fred lived his early years in Boston and graduated from Boston Public Latin School (1947) and Middlebury College in Vermont (1952).

He joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1947 and became active in 1952 with the rank of 2nd Lt. advancing to 1st Lt. while in Flight Training at Pensacola, Florida. He left flight training and began active duty with the 2nd Marine Division in 1953, advancing to rank of Captain and command of an infantry company. He finished his tour with the Marine Corps in 1958.

He began a career in the hospitality industry with ownership of the Harborview Club on Cape Cod, then to the Old Red Mill and the Hermitage at Mount Snow, Vermont. Fred then began a management career with Red Lobster, Sheraton Hotels, and Golf Clubs in Massachusetts. He married Joan Lawton in 1977 and they moved to Marshfield, Massachusetts.

They moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in early 1989, where they began Function Associates. The first Function Associates sale of numismatic literature was participated in by several hundred collectors. In May of 2000, Fred began holding mail bid sales as Lake Books. He had issued over 125 sales with some 88,000 lots of numismatic reference material being listed for sale.

Fred discovered his love for numismatic literature first as a collector of early American coppers. As a coin collector, Fred Lake was keenly aware of the value of having research material available to consult. The old Aaron Feldman dictum, "Buy the Book Before the Coin", was reinforced by visits to the coin shop of Frank and Laurese Katen. The Katens stressed the importance of education in numismatics and they became good friends and mentors who fostered the growth of Lake Books as a numismatic book seller.

During his tenure at Lake Books, Fred had traveled extensively acquiring consignments and visiting many coin shows where Lake Books had maintained a "free" table at which a wealth of books and catalogs were distributed to the public. One noted numismatist dubbed Fred "The Johnny Appleseed of Numismatic Literature."

Fred was an active member in a number of numismatic organizations including the Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS), Early American Coppers (EAC), American Numismatic Association (ANA) and has been an officer on the Board of Directors and the Staff photographer of the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) since 1998, retiring in early 2016. He was a pillar of the numismatic literature community, a mentor, a colleague, and a good friend. He will be greatly missed.

Alan adds:

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web