Hey Gang, this might be non-conforming to the list guidelines but I'm gunna give it a go. When someone like Henry passes on, it leaves a great void where fewer and fewer are apt to fill that gap. Every once in a while you get a devoted Person (not just cyclist) passing along years of business and cycling knowledge to someone who will carry the torch. Nowadays you walk into a bike shop and you feel as if you just passed through the gate at a RAVE! Loud music, unknowledgable and abrasive kids posing as sales reps. I long for those days that the list eludes to from time to time. I remember the Schwinn Dealer in Newton, NJ when I was a kid. Every employee well versed in their sales pitch, friendly and knowledgable mechanics and floors you can eat off of. Showcase glass polished to a reflective glitter and a hand-crank drivetrain display showing the customer how the rear derailleur works. Its guys like Larry Black, Dale Brown, Fred Delong and Henry Mathis that keep the flame burning. What a list we have.
Don Andersen (posing as a printing sales rep in Ithaca, NY) Columbia, MD
>Died
>Henry W. Mathis, age 84
>
>Henry was owner of Southeast Cycles on Capital Hill innthe heydey of the
>bike
>booms - 60's, 70's
>The shop was around from probably the 20's, maybe earlier
>
>I had a chance to visit him in the latter years, late 80's, early 90's, in
>his small shop in Silver Hill, Md.
>News aryticles on the walls covered the small crowded shop
>Pix of nixon and other personalities to whom henry sold bikes.
>Letters, memorabilia all over
>
>Many tool boxes spread all aound were filled with the largest and most
>comprehensive hub collection in the world.
>Henry collected unusual bike transmissions.
>He was curator of cars, motorcycles, and bicycles for the Smithsonian.
>
>He had hundreds of cars and motorcycles and bicycles too numerous to
>mention.
>
>He was the type of guy to buy a classic bicycles, take out a set of spoke
>cutters, remove the rear (maybe front as well) hub, and leave the rest of
>the
>bike for whomever.
>
>
>A few years ago Henry sold a large stash of hubs and related pieces to
>Larkin
>little of Baltimore, the lot totalling a lerger sum that even I had in
>mind,
>but Larkin has been photographing and documenting the hubs for a long time,
>a
>tedious project.
>
>There's much more to the Mathis story and maybe someone can fill us in
>
>Viewing Monday, Burial Tuesday
>
>The story is probably in the Post on line and should be in there Saturday
>
>Larry Black