My favorite memory of Mel happened in Amana in the mid 90's. I had taken a friends son with me from Tulsa to the marble show. We had gone into Mel's room looking at what he had. The first thing my young friend picked up was a contemporary lutz, about 2", the venecian ribbon type. He thought it was neat, but I told him to wait until we had visited other rooms.
It turns out Mel had won the marble at an auction a few weeks earlier, thinking he was bidding on an antique lutz. As usual, he was flapping his jaws and not paying attention to what was being auctioned, just heard lutz, so he started bidding.
Later that evening, my young friend wanted to roam out on his own while I stayed in the room showing my collection. He wandered back to Mel's room and picked up the beauty again. A few other fine collector's were there, and Mel looked at my friend, told him he could have it if he didn't come back to his room again. (joking, of course). The stunned boy jammed it into his case, and ran back to the room.
The next room Mel told me the entire story, and we all had a great laugh. He was always lots of fun, and always willing to help out a newbie.
May you rest in peace, my friend!
Gene Stanford, aka marblehead
Being a 'blue freak', that cobalt one would look great in my cabinet :-)
