[SteveMitchell]

As Mark stated, "Will was involved in the hobby for a long time [emphasis added] and helped to organize and promote some of Northern California's earliest sports collector's shows in the 1970's before returning to Southern California where he lived most of his life. He was instrumental in bringing into the hobby more than 100 million collectible items, including the bulk of the 1964 Topps Giants cards that are in the hobby today."

I first met Will in 1973. At the time 4 of us were in perhaps the third or fourth issue of Sports Scoop magazine and Will stopped by Seattle for an hour or two to talk about hobby events. He told the story of finding the Topps storehouse of 1964 giant size baseball cards but it was hard to believe until a couple cases of several thousand cards each showed up on my doorstep a few weeks later.

For several years Will made the trek from Southern California to do the annual Washington State Sports Collectors Association show - usually bringing with him some regional or other unusual item unavailable in our area. He did some of the early Nationals (later ones, too?) and actually made a bid for the second National - which was eventually won by Lloyd and Carol Torpe for Plymouth, Michigan.

We last saw him at one of Dennis Purdy's (Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector magazine) final Tacoma Dome shows about five years ago. He was as friendly and enjoining as ever. He will most certainly be missed by all who knew him.

Thank you, Mark...

Steve Mitchell