JOHN HUFFMAN AT THE INVASION OF LOUISVILLE

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V17 2014 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 12, March 23, 2014, Article 25

Ed Stoebenau recently purchased some numismatic books from John Huffman's estate, and was curious to learn what he looked like. With Charlie Davis' assistance, we identified John in The Money Tree's booklet of the Invasion of Louisville, the 1988 excursion to the library of Armand Champa.

I recently acquired from a used bookstore John Huffman's copy of The Invasion of Louisville booklet (plus more books/catalogs to fill a few boxes). I did not know JH, nor as far as I know ever met him. I am thus curious as to anyone can point out which photos in the booklet he appears in, if any.

I've attached the cover and a random page. The photo captions don't identify the people in them. I can identify a few of them. John Burns was obvious, and I could pick out Ford and Newman though I've never met them. But I'm sure some E-Sylumite can identify John Huffman in one of the photos, and I suspect most of the copies of the booklet are owned by the readers here.

Sorry for the off-kilter images - Flickr's photo editor was acting up today. In the page of photos, that looks like Jack Collins (upper left), Bob Wester (upper right), Charlie Davis (bottom left), and Vince Alones and Del Bland (bottom right). I reached out to Charlie, and he forwarded a couple more images, and identified John Huffman for us. Thanks!

Above left is a scene in front of Armand's house, as everyone was getting off the bus that brought us to Louisville. That's John Ford in the white slacks, Eric Newman in the suit jacket, and Armand Champa in short sleeves. At right is a complete roster of attendees. John Huffman is listed as "Mr. Hoffman". (As always, you can click on the image to see a larger version in our Flickr archive).

In this photo, that's John Huffman at the end of the receiving line carrying a box. At the front is Jack Collins getting a hug from Armand's wife Kay.

This sure brought back a lot of memories for me. It was John Burns who told me about the event and put me in touch with Armand. I talked my way into the gathering, even though I was only a fledgling numismatic literature collector. It was there for the first time I met hobby legends like John Ford, George Fuld, and Jules Reiver, not to mention every numismatic literature dealer in the country.

I think I'd met Eric Newman earlier. Regardless, it was the bombastic John Ford who held court and stole the show. His baritone voice could be heard all day long. Many of the great folks I met that day have since gone to meet their maker. But what a legendary gathering!

Wayne Homren, Editor