More Sad News

[joefrazer]

I just received news that Ben Walker, our former KFOCI Quarterly editor, passed away on Sunday night. Ben was the recipient of the Golden Quill Award, handed out by the publishers of Old Cars Weekly, for his efforts as editor of the publication.  He worked hard to deliver a quality magazine, a tradition continued to this day by our current editor, Mike Barker.
He will be missed.

[Jim B PEI]

This is indeed a great loss.

[Fid]

I am so sorry to learn this news. Ben and his skill as quarterly editor were large factors in my returning to the hobby in the mid 90s after a 20 year absence. I remember visiting my parents and seeing that my dad had the lastest quarterlies on his book shelf and opening them and enjoying them. This is not to say that his predecessors or successors have not been great, it's just saying that something about Ben's style really connected with me. He was  good guy to talk with and always interesting to listen to. Last I saw him was at Flagstaff in 2005. I stopped by his booth and chatted for a while. He was already missed but now even  more so.

[Gordie]

We've lost a wonderful talent and a wealth of K-F knowledge with Ben's passing.  Luckily for us Ben shared a large part of that knowledge with us in the Quarterly.  Savor them!  He was unique!

[HJ-ETEX]

This is what I have written to submit to Barbara Mueller concerning the death of Ben Walker:

Ben Walker LM4572 passed away Sunday February 12, 2012. He was buried near his home in Nacogdoches, TX.
Ben was a college instructor in Chemistry at Stephen F Austin University in Nacogdoches and he decided in 1980 to join the KFOCI in order to find and buy a duplicate of the car he first learned to drive, a 1951 Kaiser Special. In April of 1982, he located a black 1951 Kaiser Deluxe that had been stored in a not running condition since 1957 and arranged to buy it on his way to the Pate Swap Meet that year. At that swap meet, he encountered a vendor with 2 other Kaisers that he bought for parts to fix the first one. He talked a former student into helping him retrieve the 3 Kaisers and rebuilding an engine for the 1951 Deluxe. In the process, he romanced that former student and the student's brother into getting involved with Kaisers and the KFOCI.

In a period when the world began to move to digital tools, Ben offered his knowledge and access to personal computing equipment to write, edit, publish and mail the KF Quarterly Magazine beginning in the Fall of 1985 and continuing to 2000. During this time he cooperated in mailing extensions and later a complete revision to the KF Handbook. Also during this time, he served as the South Central Regional Manager and encouraged more participation from members in that Region which lead to yearly Regional Meets, as well as a Divisional Meet and two National Meets. He attended KF National Meets from 1984 to 2005, missing only 2. 

Ben primarily collected literature and he collected the entire run of KF Quarterly Magazines and KF ads to help him in his Club work. He developed a check list of KF advertising that was combined with Ray Tomb's list to give a comprehensive document. This lead to Ben's project to digitize all major KF service publications. He succeeded in preserving all Owners Manuals, all KF Shop manuals, all KF & KW service bulletins, and primary parts catalogs as digital files.

Ben knew his health was fading and he arranged good recipients for his cars, literature, and memorabilia several months before his passing. He was not one of the Club founders or even a early member of the Club but he put a lot of effort into the Club and influenced a lot of us.   
Tom Stradt LM5460

[HJ-ETEX]

One of the things we talked about at Ben's Service was the trip his family made from Louisiana to Colorado in 1949 in a 47 Frazer Manhattan. Ben's father and uncles owned a string of sawmills in East Texas and Western Louisiana area. I don't know what they found to cut because I have been taught that the whole area had been mostly cut over prior to WWII. Summer is the busiest time for a sawmill because the cutting crews can get into areas that are too wet most of the year so Ben's father was taking off about 2 weeks at a crucial time. I think they may have visited relatives in West Texas on the way, but Ben mostly talked about going to Colorado Springs and driving up Pikes Peak in the Frazer.
When Ben grew up, he developed an interest in Fly Fishing. After he got a job teaching at SFA, he and a fellow instructor would drive up each August to Yellowstone NP and stay about 4 weeks and fly fish. Why Yellowstone? Because the fishing permit is free in the Park and not all of the many varied streams and lakes are only catch and release. And if you manage to get bored with Yellowstone, there are even better streams just outside the Park in Montana and Idaho. You could have nearly a whole month vacation for 5 people for about $100. But one year, his partner could no longer go on the Big Trip, so Ben took his elderly father and mother to Yellowstone instead (not much fishing was intended). Part of this trip was retracing the epic 1949 journey in the Frazer, except this time it was in a plush air conditioned Chevy station wagon. In fact at that time Ben had just joined the KFOCI so when they stopped at Colorado Springs, Ben called Fred Walker and went out to see what Fred had for sale.
Ben was not satisfied with what Fred had to offer and a the next Spring Ben located a car only 1/4 of the distance to Colorado Springs.
And the car was not a 47 Frazer.

[Fid]

Thanks Tom. A lot of significant members/afficianadoes have passed in recent years. I was surprised when John Parker passed away in 2006 with nothing more than an "In Memorium" statement in the bulletin.  John Parker made significant contributions to KFOC and the KF hobby. Same with Fred Walker but I also understand that if something's to be said of these folks, it has to come from the surviving members and if no one writes anything, nothing can be published. When Fred Walker passed away in 2009, someone commented it was notable that the club published nothing about him.
I never heard a negative comment from anyone about Ben Walker - Ben certainly deserves some sort of tribute and I think it's great that you are willing to write one for him. This is my personal 'thank you' for doing so. I miss Ben already.
I'm working on a piece for the late Edgar Kaiser Jr. right now too. Ben was a very special person in this hobby and will be missed by all who knew  him.

[Gordie]

Thanks Tom,  you probably knew Ben better than any of the other members and the tribute is great and thanks for sharing so much of Ben's history.  A very interesting read about a very private man.  He will certainly be missed and remembered.  We know who that former student and his brother are thanks for being Ben's very best Kaiser Frazer friends.

[HJ-ETEX]

Remembering the First Ben Walker Quarterlies: Back in 1984, personal computers were becoming common, but PCs with type quality printers and word processing software were still rare. Ben had access to a TI clone of an IBM PC with a nice TI dot matrix printer and he wanted to make a "dustcan" issue of the KF Quarterly to show to the Club officers the type of quality product he could deliver.  He wanted to make the Quarterly look as close to news stand magazine as possible and a key feature would be multi column text so the product would not look like it was done with a typewriter and mimeograph. The software we had was fairly nice for the time but it did not do columns! (Didn't spell check either.) I figured out a solution. Make each page only 3 1/2 inches wide and offset every other page 4 inches. Then print one page, reinsert that page into the printer, and print the next page. Hopefully if the paper was reinserted carefully, the lines on the left would align with the lines on the right to give one printed page with 2 columns. It took some practice.

After a few issues, I bought a newer version of the software that could do columns and few years beyond, Ben obtained an early version of Word Perfect which could do even more tricks, but required us to relearn everything we knew about word processing.   

[Fid]

Just thought I'd tack on here that Ben's last post on this forum was last July 25.   Has anyone heard from Dave Hollen? I've e-mailed him a couple of times now and heard nothing. I may try to give him a call.

[Bulletin Editor]

I understand that if something's to be said of these folks, it has to come from the surviving members and if no one writes anything, nothing can be published.

Thank you, Fid.

To ALL: I need your help/input. Please let me know when a member passes so I can share it in the Bulletin, and feel free to send your remembrances. 

[HJ-ETEX]

Barbara's Message is a needed reminder for all of us.
I sent a simple message about Ben on Feb 19 so it was too late for the immediate issue of the Bulletin.
I also sent a message at the same time to Deb Wilson since Ben was a Life Member.
There is no harm done if MULTIPLE people send notifications to the Bulletin Editor and Membership Secretary but there is harm done if NO  notification is sent.