Following my service as one of the first radar navigators in the eighth Air Force division in England during World War II, I was discharged in the fall of 1945. My father-in-law gave me a small, maroon-colored Parker 51 fountain pen, which I still have to this day. I used this pen for a while until the advent of ball point pens. Most people discarded their fountain pens in favor of the new ball-point pens, as was in vogue at the time. I too stopped using my maroon Parker, and placed it in a desk drawer, where it remained for several years.

Some time later, in the 1960's, my wife kept after me to clean out my desk drawers. Finally, after much persuasion, I took the time to clean out the desk in my upstairs office. I started opening drawers, with a wastebasket ready for me to throw away anything I no longer wanted. I came across the maroon Parker fountain pen, picked it up, and started to throw it into the wastebasket. Then I said to myself, 'Everyone throws these away.' My right hand was in motion to toss it out, when I thought, 'I'll start a collection of fountain pens.' I had no knowledge of the subject. My wife's good friend was a librarian in the Cincinnati library system, and although she searched for information for me, she could only locate material relating to engineering drawings, etc., in technical journals.

I began going to flea markets around the Cincinnati area. I was able to find all kinds of pens that dealers practically gave away, since there was no market for such items. I brought home cigar boxes full of pens every time I went looking. My only criterion in obtaining the pens was that they were large with interesting colors and patterns. I was able to find hundreds of all of the famous brands, such as Parker, Sheaffer, Conklin, Wahl, Wahl Eversharp, John Holland (a Cincinnati brand), Waterman, Diamond Point, Gold Seal, and an assortment of other brands.

I did not know of anyone else who collected pens until I read an article in The New York Times about a collector by the name of Leonard Ackerman who, the article reported, had over 5,000 vintage fountain pens. Leonard worked at Barney's department store in New York City. My business often took me to New York, so I struck up an acquaintanceship with Leonard. On my trips by pullman train to New York in the 1960's, I would take all of my pens (several hundred of them) with me. In the evening, Leonard would come to visit me at my hotel. We would sit up until all hours of the night, talking about our pens. He was the only human being I could converse with about them. I had a desire to own a Mont Blanc #149 pen. He had a very large black one, which I think was the only color available. I asked my friend if he would consider trading his #149 for one of my pens. He agreed, and picked out an oversize Wahl Gold Seal black & pearl plastic pen with a roller clip cap ñ a very pretty pen. We made the trade. I felt more than satisfied. Much later, the Wahl pen turned out to be worth four or five times as much as the #149 Mont Blanc, but no one knew the difference at the time of the trade.

The first reference book to appear in the United States was a publication by Cliff Lawrence. It was a small paperback with about 50 pages of photographs of pens with so-called 'market prices'. This was the first book published with such data; apparently, Cliff Lawrence was the one who first established pen values in this country. In looking through it, I found that I owned almost every pen in the book. I still have a copy of the book.

I then began to meet people who were collectors. I would meet them on street corners in New York City, in hotel lobbies, etc. From Ackerman, I heard about Bob Edison, who at the time wrote Billboard publications for Broadway plays ñ which he still does ó and who is now a contributing writer for Pen World. He, in turn, introduced me to John Quevas, a dealer and trader of various collectibles. One thing lead to another until I was invited to a get-together of pen collectors from the Washington/Baltimore area. This meeting took place in the late 1970's on a Sunday afternoon at the downtown YMCA in Washington, DC. Paul Sameth, currently on the board of the Pen Collectors of America, was one person that I remember being there. You could not call this get-together a pen show, but rather a group of eight or ten men who brought most of their pens to the meeting. It was not organized, nor did it have an agenda. As I recall, the meeting room had a number of round tables upon which everyone just literally dumped their loose pens. It was an ego event as in Look What I Have. There was no buying, trading, or selling. There was no price guide information available at the time. This so-called show was the first meeting of pen collectors that I can remember. I began meeting collectors in Chicago in private homes. Some of the people included Harry Boras, Glen Bowen, Michael Fultz, Don Lavin, Judd Perlson, Dan Zazove, among others. I did not keep a written diary of names, places, and events, so you must forgive me if I have left anyone out.