In a message dated 6/11/01 3:31:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time, jet@sciti.com writes:
<< All this talk about McLean Fonvielle has me wondering how and when he passed away and at what age? >>
In his late teens, Mclean returned to the USA in the early 1970s, having spent time studying frame building in Britain at Holdsworth.. I am not sure exactly of the time he "opened shop" but I bought my first (of many) frames from him in maybe early 1974..
He was a fit, slender, non-smoker, casual drinker (wine with dinner most likely..) with a relaxed demeanor....he was the opposite the stereotype of a person at risk.. He married happily and built a new house in Durham, N.C. not far from his rural startup spot, Saxapahaw, NC, near Silk Hope. One evening as he was riding his exercise bike in the basement, he just collapsed dead. It was discovered to be a massive heart failure due to a previously undiagnosed defect, likely congenital. He was not quite 30 years old!
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