A Master Craftsman and a True Friend

I've mentioned before my childhood next-door neighbor Charles Gunther. He was a master-craftsman in everything he did, and we would spend countless hours together discussing trains. He made flash-cards of reporting marks and quiz me on them. This was between the time I was 5 and 18. He was in his 70's and 80's.

He passed when I was in college, but not before contacting me, and asking that my brother and I take care of his trains for him. We still have his beautifully scenicked H.O. scale layout.

One of the other things I loved to do at his house was play with his ships on his Living Room floor. These weren't just any ships, but the entire U.S. Fleet pre-Pearl Harbor, built from scratch to scale.

Imagine my surprise to find this [URL=http://books.google.com/books?id=jikDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80&dq=Charles+A.+Gunther+ Models&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EfMWT6OuN6Xe0QHBg-HuAg&ved=0CDgQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q=Char les%20A.%20Gunther%20Models&f=false]LINK[/URL] to an old Popular Science article about my old friend.

Before he passed he left several of those ships to me, where they hold a place of honor in my Family Room.

Jon