Bob Lemke -- Terribly Sad News

[spec]

What sad news to begin the new year. I worked with Bob on some of the checklists for the first Standard Catalog and quickly recognized him as a kindred spirit. His passion for collecting, particularly the 1950s, was unsurpassed! Bob Lemke left an indelible impression on our hobby; he will be sorely missed. RIP, Bob. Condolences to his family and litany of friends.

[Vintagecatcher]

Very sad to hear of Mr. Lemke's passing.

For those of us who have been in the hobby for many years, his contributions did not go unnoticed.

We have lost a great resource, and, more importantly, a good man!

My prayers go out to Bob's family and friends.

Patrick McMenemy

[BeanTown]

RIP Bob. Class act and I'm thankful to have known him. He inspired me to start collecting baseball currency in the late 90s which was one of his favorite items to collect and write about. We spoke last year and was a follower of his Blog. Condolences to his family as the hobby lost a great person.

[oaks1912]

Very sorry to read of Bob's passing. We met in the 80's shortly after Krause Publications acquired SCD. Bob was a very dedicated researcher and our communications were done over the phone or through the mail. Often times I felt that Bob thought he was bothering me with calls or letters, but that was far from the case. He always had 'good' questions, and I was happy to provide input where I could. His enormous contributions to the hobby should never be trivialized or forgotten. All too often a two second Google search can produce ten times the data that took Bob many years to gather. Some great thoughts in Rob Lifson's letter above... R.I.P. Bob

[slidekellyslide]

RIP Bob, such a hobby giant, he will be truly missed.

I recall when I found some previously unknown Lincoln Chiefs cards put out by Weaver's Wafers (potato chips) that he contacted me about them and I felt like I was being contacted by a celebrity. He was so nice. He included them in his big book the next year and did a write up about them on his blog. He was so dedicated to this hobby. Such a tremendous loss. Very sad.

[Orioles1954]

Very sad to learn of Bob Lemke's passing. During my 20s and 30s he worked with me in adding a couple of issues to the Standard Guide. He was kind, intelligent and exceptionally generous with his time.

[ValKehl]

I blame the Standard Catalog and SCD for fueling my passion for collecting vintage baseball cards, especially pre-War type cards, for the past 30 years or so. RIP, Bob.
Val

[sreader3]

Sorry to hear the passing of a tireless and creative force for the hobby. I learned a lot from Bob's blog entries and, of course, the Standard Catalog.

[h2oya311]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

I blame the Standard Catalog and SCD for fueling my passion for collecting vintage baseball cards, especially pre-War type cards, for the past 30 years or so. RIP, Bob.
Val

+1 - especially the Standard Catalog!! I remember buying the 2003 book and thinking "wow, this is expensive", but it is now tattered and torn from so much use. It was worth every penny!

[whiteymet]

VERY saddened to hear of Bob's passing.

Spent many hours with Bob at the old Ft. Washington, PA show talking cards. I would show him lots of oddball stuff and variations hoping he would include them in the catalog, some of which he would deem important enough, others not.

The first time he said he would give me an acknowledgement in the front of the next catalog. I told him that was not necessary, but sure enough he did and it is still there to this day along with many other contributors.

Occasional collectors and non collectors would contact him with a question about a certain issue or item and he would always "pass them off" to me and I assume others if the item in question was in that collectors specialty. I pick up some really nice and rare items from contacts Bob either gave me or told others to get in touch with me.

I know he was frustrated after he left SCD that no one there really had the passion to pick up or gather info to update the catalog. I know I tried to give info to SCD a few times with seemingly no interest. When I turned to him he sort of threw his hands up and said time had passed for him to do it. I mentioned he could at least mention things in his blog which he did do a few times.

Then of course there were his "cards". When I won the original artwork that was intended to be used for the Richie Ashburn card in the 1955 Topps set that was never issued due to the Bowman contract fiasco of the time, I contacted Bob about making a card of it.

He said he would be glad to do it, but that I should be the one writing the back of the card and helping with design etc. So we went ahead and worked on it.

You can see the final two designs and the back of the card below. He also did a 53 Topps Ashburn from original art that again was not issued for the same reason. Strange they could issue a card of Ashburn in 54 but not 53 or 55.....

A TRUE giant in the hobby! Naturally he will be missed.

Fred McKie