Events

Sometime in the late 1970's, three collectors gathered at the Meeker, Ohio Sportsman Club. Dick Johnson, George Brown, and Ron Niles had on that day, started a new tradition in Ohio. Dick, who had been collecting and accumulating pens since 1958 says that about one dozen tables were covered with pens. "We just sort of stood around, not quite sure what we should do," Dick says.

In late 1983, just months after buying and selling our first fountain pens, Michael Fultz, the organizer of the Chicago Pen Show, and pen maker extraordinaire, organized a pen gathering in Columbus, Ohio. Terry, Personnel Director at Bethesda Hospital at the time, was busy running the Bethesda Employees Family Picnic in Zanesville, so of course, I attended the show. I remember thinking that first experience, with fewer than two dozen exhibitors was "Overwhelming". After all, the Mawhorter's were new to the pen world and had not really caught the collecting bug. The Mawhorter exhibit at that show consisted of about thirty pens and pencils, and it paled miserably in the shadow of collections from Abe Schwartz, Dick Johnson, Steve Overbury, and of course Mike Fultz. Others attending were, Stu Schneider, Harry Bouras, Jack Price, George Brown, and Glen Bowen.