[SEL] Glenn Karch

[Arnie Fero]

Keith,

On Saturday I ran my 4 hp Robertsonville engine as this is one that has a connection
to Glenn for me.  When I got the engine much of the fuel system plumbing was
missing.  A post to the list got a reply from Glenn.  He explained that the
Robertsonville was a Canadian copy of the Waterloo Boy engines and as such would
have had the Wittry patent mixer.  He referred to it as a "slobber mixer" due to the
way that you primed it for starting.  He gave me the patent number references for
the mixer.  This helped me to sort out the plumbing / starting issues.

He also explained that the town of Robersonville was only about 50 miles from the
town of Plesseville in Canada where they made copies of the Hercules line of
engines.  He said that no one knew if the Canadians built these engines under some
sort of license arrangement or if they just stole the good American engine ideas.
8-))

>From his regular Hercules column in Gas Engine Magazine and from comments from
friends in the hobby I knew that Glenn was the Hercules guru; he "wrote the book(s)"
so to speak.  The information on the Robertsonville was my introduction to how broad
and deep Glenn's knowledge of old engines was in general.  Over the years Glenn
would continue to amaze and amuse me with his engine stories; either about some
really obscure aspect of a particular unusual engine, or one of his "That reminds me
of when..." which was usually the lead in to a great story of his days with the
Pioneer Seed Company when he would be offered old engines in exchange for seed or
just have them given to him because he had knowledge and expressed interest.

I also got a real kick out of Glenn coming back to the SEL area at Coolspring or
Portland or SIAM with a huge grin on his face and all excited because he had just
seen something new in the way of an engine feature or obsure Hercules part and he
just couldn't wait to share the discovery.  He was like a little kid who just found
his Easter basket.

Some of the greatest enjoyment came each year when Glenn would run the Charity
Auction at the Portland Thursday night SEL dinner at the Back Forty.  Glenn liked to
make block puzzles with GEM covers as the pictures.  These would obviously generate
some pretty passionate bidding if one of your prized engines happened to be one of
the selected covers for a given puzzle.  I remember one particular auction where a
well known real estate tycoon used his VERY deep pockets to outbid (and reduce to
tears) a VERY sweet young girl who was trying to buy her daddy a present.  Poor
Glenn was nearly reduced to tears himself by this behavior; but he soldiered on and
finished the auction.  He even managed to keep the tycoon from being lynched by the
unruly crowd.  The names of the key players are withheld; but THEY know who they
are.  8-)))

Glenn was one of a kind.  I'll really miss him.  I really hope that Marion continues
to attend the SIAM show (and possibly Portland) to stay in contact with the engine
folks.  It has been wonderful to see Ria Hammink continuing to attend Nuenen after
John died and staying in touch with her friends in the old engine hobby.

See ya,  Arnie

Arnie Fero
Pittsburgh, PA
fero_ah at city-net.com

On Wed, November 4, 2009 12:49 pm, Keith Kinney wrote:
>
> As a tribute to Glenn I'd like to suggest that on Saturday, preferably
> during the funeral but anytime is ok, start up and engine or two.
> Kind of like a World Wide memorial service.   If you have a Hercules
> built engine to fire up that would be great but Glenn liked all makes
> and models and I'm sure he'd be happy to see any of them running.  If
> you'll then post what you started and maybe tell a favorite memory of
> Glenn I'll share it with his family.
>