Bob Paeth passes.

[Jim Keeler model cars]

I just received word from the hospital, and Jan Paeth that Bob Paeth died this morning at 7:15 AM, Portland Oregon time. Bob has been my friend for fifty years, and I hired him at Revell to assist me in developing model car kits for the expanding development of new products . We worked together on many projects for four years. Bob and I judged the 10,000 model cars that were entered each year for the Revell Pactra contests. We waded through ( a ton,really) of popcorn to get to the thousands of models that were entered. I have enjoyed meeting Bob at the SABBA contest in Portland, and at GSL... he was a good friend, and I will miss him dearly. I will post the information on his memorial service as soon as Jan calls me.

Jim Keeler

[crispy]

My condolences to the Paeth family and to all those who knew him.

I'm one of the guys that had never met him, however I read about him and have seen him post on the boards as well.

This is certainly a blow to the modeling community.

Chris

[evilone]

###### his is a sad day

i heard how he started in this hobby

and how he was a icon in this hobby

it is a sad day indeed

a moment of silence is needed

[georgeh]

Jim, please accept my deepest sympathys at the loss of your good freind. Please extend them to his family also. I never met Bob, but he was an instumental person in our hobby.Like I said, I remember reading his articles in the old Model Car mags in the 60's. He has left an indelible mark in our hobby and in many peoples lives. God Bless you Bob Paeth, may you Rest in Peace.

[FloridaBoy]

I just got the news, and it seems like all of the heroes I have in this hobby are now leaving their legacy and I feel grieved for their loss. I entered all Revell Pactra contests and won a couple of nice awards way back then, and that is when I became aware of who Bob was. I have seen his work, and we should all take a moment or way more to reflect as to what this hobby is, and how much richer and better it is for now because he was around, and integral.

My condolences to the Paeth family, and to his friends, and surely hope his work ends up at the National Model Car Museum. I plan to go there and spend a day just to relive the great memories of then, and to refresh my enthusiasm now.

My next model car which will be my best, hopefully will be dedicated to his memory and even more importantly his legacy.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[ismaelg]

Jim,

Thanks for let us know. There was always a little ray of hope. But he is now in a better place.

Our simpathies and respect to you, his family, friends and to all who he touched.

A great one has left us. It is up to us now to keep the flame and see him as an inspiration, a role model.

Rest in peace.

Thanks,

[raisin27]

A sad day indeed, I met Bob at the KC Slammers show this year. He truly seemed to care about the hobby and the people in it. What an great man he was. My heartfelt condolenses to his family and all who knew him.

Raisin

[Billy Kingsley]

I'm at a loss for words. I met Bob through this websight, and he was a truly nice person. The hobby has lost some great men in the past few years, and Bob is one of them.

[RodBurNeR]

At a loss for words here. I have only known Bob for about 4-5 months. We met in Kansas at the Heartland Nationals model contest. Bob reacted to me as if we were best friends and i introduced some people to him, who had no idea who he was. He treated everyone the same and he literally made you feel special because his spirit was just that good.

God rest his soul.

[RJ44]

My condolences to his family and everyone in the hobby that had the good fortune to meet him.

[Fletch]

My wife and I went to visit Bob in the hospital last evening and from the way he was then we knew it wouldn't be much longer. To say that we have lost a good friend would be the understatement of the century. Bob, was one of the founding members of Scale Auto Builders Ass'n (SABA) here in Portland. He was also the driving force behind what now is known as the Portland Classic Model Car Contest which is held in conjugation with the Portland Roadster Show. Bob, hounded the producer of the Roadster Show from 1970 until they gave in and the Portland Classic started in 1972, this coming March will be the 37th year of the show.

We had already decided to reinstate the Best of the Best contest at the next Portland Classic Contest. The Contest will now be a tribute to Bob.

Please, keep Jan and the family in your prayers, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would provide the peace and comfort.

Dave

[Jairus]

All very true!

Welcome to MCM forums Dave. Like most of us who are members of SABA, many current members were invited to join by Bob's easy smile and friendly way of relating to all on a one to one basis. I was asked by the Bob to join the club back in 1983 or so and will miss him very much. The meetings will not be the same....

Speaking of meetings, is there one scheduled this Sunday still?

(Next time you see Terri, please tell her Hi from Jairus....)

[randx0]

I am saddened by this news.If I had the chance I would thank Bob for his contribution to this hobby.I never met him and still I feel the loss.my condolences to his family .I imagine he has had a hand in alot of my builds and I don't even know it .

[Car Crazy 81]

Heres My Deepest Condolences To A Modeling Legend Altough I Never Met Him I Heard About Bob On The Forums. Again My Condolences Goes Out To The Paeth Family.

[oldcars]

My prayers are with the family. Met Bob a few times back in the 90's at the show at the Elks club in Puyallup. When I found out he was going to be in K.C. in June, I had to go. I am so glad I was able to see Bob again. I think I am now going into my hobby room and cry for awhile. I love you Bob and will miss you . P.S. Hope there is a good hobbyshop for you in Heaven. Melt some plastic for us. Richard

[simonr]

A real sad day for our modelism community. I remember to have my first contact with Bob when he posted this thread about the upcomong GSL show:

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2509

We PM ourself by a couple of days, since he asked me to share a room there, but, I couldn't because I planned to travel with my family. Anyway, as soon as I got there, I look for him, and like he told me, almost the half of the people there already meet him. I wasn't just only a big pleasure to met him, if not, that I had the privilege to see him working in one of the workshops offered in the GSL at the Model Cars Museum in Salt Lake City.

Without any doubt, as master using plastic to weld in projects...what logical way, use plastic to fix plastic! I'm real sad also, because, I had a video of that workshop and when I lost my 3 cameras right at the airport here, that video also was lost.

My prayers and condolences to all his family...Bob, my friend, you will be miss BIG time!

Simón P. Rivera Torres

[RodneyBad]

I just saw him over the weekend.

My hearts and pryers are with him and his family.

[lordairgtar]

My condolences. Never met him in person but had emailed back and forth about model car stuff. Truly a wonderful man. The hobby world lost a visionary, icon, and goodwill ambassador for the hobby of model cars.

[camaroman]

Rest In peace BOB!!!

[Art Anderson]

Some thoughts on the passing of Bob Paeth:

Sometimes, when I think of this hobby (and to a lesser extent, other areas of plastic scale model building), I get struck with the idea that while certainly there were model car builders before injection-molded plastic kits, it wasn't until the first kids, the leading edge of us who were "War Babies" began to reach 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall, with allowances, even paper-route or lawn-mowing money to spend pretty much as we saw fit, that this hobby began to take off. We kids born in the first half of the 1940's, supplanted and surpassed in numbers by the legenday Baby Boom Generation (01/01/46-12/31/64), took up a hobby, almost to a cause, the likes of which really had never been seen before (Relatively few, if any of our Dads build models, and even rarer was the Dad back then who had built a model car as a kid himself). Truly, I believe, our's is a hobby born in the right place, the right time, and with the "right real-world, real-car fanaticsm to inspire us yet-to-be-old-enough-to-get-a-driver's-license youngsters. We could dream, and boy-oh-boy could we!

I suspect that many of us came to think of model car building back then, in the 50's, and at least into the early 60's as a "kid thing", something we did that grownups did not. Sure, there were adult builders, but we kids could have cared less. We were the younger generation, and this hobby was something I think we truly saw as "ours". And, on the flip side of this 45rpm record, in a very real way, the plastic model kit industry saw us then-young kids as "their's. It was almost as though the hymn really read "Praise (fill in your favorite name here), from whom all good things come" (not meant irreverently, OK), and the adults in the choir singing (Thanks Lord, for all these kids!).

I doubt (I know I fall into this category) that any of us considered that it took adults to supply the model car kits we gobbled up as if they were the tastiest candy bars on the drugstore shelves. Oh sure, we all knew (and liked or disliked to varying degrees) the hobby, toy, and variety store owners, managers and clerks who tolerated our browsing until we finally decided what to get with those quarters, perhaps a dollar bill, and occasionally, maybe even TWO WHOLE DOLLARS (heady money for a preteenager back then, most places!) Little did we know that it took a small army of grownups to concieve, create, and manufacture those kits, at least not until such magazines as Car Modeler, Model Car Science, and the amazing Rod & Custom Models showed us the inside looks of say, AMT, Revell, or Monogram, complete with pics of design teams, perhaps a pattern-maker laboring away on the body mockup of the latest kit announced. Even more, we probably didn't even stop to think how young some of those grownups were, young enough to live into the 1990's and today, so that we might have the chance to even meet some of them.

It's surely true, that it was the then-unsung product developers, such as Bob Paeth, who made millions of kids' dreams of that particularly awesome car come true, in model kit form, and at a price that in the context of the day, was attainable by hard work, be that doing odd jobs, passing papers at 5:30am, mowing lawns in the neighborhood, running errands, or that most strenous of exercises, "persuading" Dad's hand to reach back to pull out his wallet, and lay a week's allowance across a smaller, outstretched palm. While sympathetic parents, patient newspaper agents, equally patient homeowners with grass needing to be cut played a huge, and pivotal role in our achieving automotive dreams in miniature, it was the likes of Bob Paeth and Budd Anderson, along with the John Muellers, Jim Keelers, and older folks with the capital such as the Glasers, and the Jack Bessers and John Hanle's who really played the pivotal role. Without these truly wonderful people, or others like them, none of this hobby we still love would ever have come to be.

In later years, after their careers in the plastic model business were over, some came back to the hobby, came back to commune, breaking the styrene, dissolving it with glue, creating their own masterpieces right along with us Boomers, ourselves now grown, a lot taller, many of us at least a tad heavier, our hair grayer (and thinner) with voices deepened by both maturity and at least some wisdom--and those formerly unsung heroes who worked their magic behind the scenes became part of us (but in reality, they were part of "us" from the beginning!)

It's sad, terribly sad, when the time comes when we must bid adieu to anyone who helped nurture the model kit products which delighted us at an age when we really could enjoy such with almost careless abandon. We all remember the little stories we've had the privilege to read, or hear related in first-person. Bob Paeth was one of the best, in my considered opinion. His anecdotes of how some of those great 60's Revell kits came to be, of how some of the gorgeous box art happened, are a huge part of the legends of this hobby. Bob brought his long-tested building techniques not only to us, those of us who formed Revell's customer base 45yrs ago, but to succeeding generations as well. Along the way, he kept all of us enthralled with his stories, became our friend, no matter whether he'd met us personally, or just here online.

Bob Paeth, thanks for the memories, thanks for the friendship, and THANKS for all your hard work "back in the day", your being one of those then-unsung, almost unknown toilers behind the scenes, making our (and mine!) model car dreams come true. May God bless you, keep you, and may Heaven have an unlimited supply of plastic, glue, paint, oh, and hot tools for welding styrene in your own inimitable fashion. Thanks for all the great times at NNL-West's, and GSL's!

Arthur Anderson

[mikemodeler]

Art,

What a moving tribute to a man who did so much for our hobby !

Like others, I had read about Bob but never met him. The contributions that he and many others have made to this hobby and world are numerous and gentlemen like him are rare gems.

Tonight my thoughts and prayers include Bob and his family. I take comfort in knowing he is in a better place and his suffering has ended.

Thank you Art for the wonderful words.

Mike

[lordairgtar]

I will always look at that beautiful picture on that Revell kit of that 1957 Nomad on the beach with those cropped in black and white chrome reverse rims off of Bob's own Rambler with fond memories. Art, you write eloquently of an awesome personality.

[Ronster]

BOB,

I am glad I got the chance to spend time with you on the phone this past summer. It was great to talk to you, like talking to an old friend. I'm pretty sure we met once in San Jose, at the NNL-West. If I remember correctly, I was talking to Randy about favorite boxes, and I mentioned the 57 Nomad. Randy took me over and introduced me to you for the "rest of the story".

Thanks for the Revellion print, and thanks for your time at Revell. Through your work, the box art and models, I became involved with what has turned into a lifelong hobby.

Rest in Peace, my friend, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Regards, Ron Garbez

PS - I'm just assuming you can see the message board up there. RG

[Samster]

Bob was one of the great ones.

For years, we have enjoyed bantering back and forth, and sharing thoughts and stories about and beyond modeling. He exemplified the creative side of modeling and put imagination and innovation into his wonderful creations. He encouraged all of us to build for pleasure and therapy, and above all: FUN! Save me a space on the big display table, Bob.

Edited October 24, 2008 by Samster

[Mr.1/16th]

###### his is a sad day

i heard how he started in this hobby

and how he was a icon in this hobby

it is a sad day indeed

a moment of silence is needed

WELL SAID AND OUR PRAYERS GO OUT TO THE FAMILY FOR ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF THIS HOBBY WE ALL LOVE. REST IN PEACE BROTHER.

SANTIAGO OF SAN DEIGO.