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Sad news, my condolances to his family.

Maarten

Thank you Steven for telling us of the very sad ending of your Father and how difficult is is for you all at this time. You must now concentrate on Dad's safe passing over and be assured that forum members will be thinking of him and his family during this period and for a long time to come.

Please don't feel you have to visit the forum on a daily basis, you have far more important things to attend to for now but you now know where we are and as I mentioned in an earlier post, you and the rest of your family are more than welcome here when you can visit.

Best regards,
Kevin.

So very sorry and saddened to learn of Kwakers passing. Very sad news indeed.
He will be greatly missed here on the forum. My condolences to his Family, his friends and to the the fellow members of the forum. We shall all miss his very knowledgeable posts and musings.

zBret

It is with great sadness and deep condolences that I extend to Kwakers' family after just finding out about his passing.
While I never had the pleasure to meet him, I truly enjoyed reading his posts to the Forum that were informative, educational, accurate, well-written, and always truly sincere. His knowledge of regular wheels was exceptional and I learned a great deal from him and always considered it a treat when he would respond to a post that I was involved with.
My prayers and thoughts to his family as they work through these deeply difficult times.

It is easy to see that Kwaker's son, Steven has many of his Dad's redeeming qualities including wisdom at a younger age based on his quote, "Please make sure you enjoy the time you have with your loved ones". How right you are Steven! May your father rest in peace.............. his legacy will live on in this Forum.

Bill

Good Morning VDB Members; I learned last night of the sudden and untimely passing of Dick Kwak. I extend my sympathy and condolences to his family and friends. What a heavy blow to the hobby. While we are both native New Yorkers, ironically the only times that I met Dick was at a number of Pennsylvania toy and automobilia shows as the Quaker State (as it's known) is still the U.S. mecca after many decades for die cast collecting. We shared common interests in the regular wheels range, but Dick's acumen far exceeded my own. He was a true "flyspeck" collector, often seizing upon the most subtle casting variations to either document for his own expansive collections or just to share knowledge. Despite the rough and somewhat unkempt appearance this fellow was a true and articulate advocate for all that is good in the hobby. I know I used to pull out a couple of interesting variations acquired since a previous Macungie or Hershey show or during the prior year. I'd pack them up in my knapsack just to "accidentally on purpose" run into Dick and then spin the story of what I had, Both being RW raconteurs his eyes would pop wide when the tissue or bubble wrap was peeled away revealing another little nugget. He did the same with me and I will always cherish our meetings. Thanks to all who've posted on the topic at this difficult time. - Early Wheels

Hi Earlywheels,
Still very shocked and will miss Dick a lot, his enthusiasm was contagious and although he did say a few times that I was a man of very few words his reply,s to any questions were just amazing. I had many great trades with Dick and those models will be the stars of my collection and a great reminder of the man himself .
J

I still battle with wiping away my tears! Just cannot believe that Kwakers is no longer and his lenghty emails just haunt me and so does his gift models to me.
Yes,we did have some run-ins but thats because he was old school and firm in his beliefs whether wrong or right.
Hes truly a softie at heart and we maintained a great father & daughter relationship.
Rest in peace and miss u stacks Caveman!
numi

Haven't been here in a while, so I just saw this post. I didn't know Dick, but I sure enjoyed reading all his posts.

RIP

GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Can I propose we find somewhere on the forum to be called or named after a truly great collector, Kwackers.

I have been pondering the above for a while now.
The obvious candidate is the RW 1-75 area, but how about the "Picture Gallery" area instead? I think that would have brought a wry grin to Dick's face, and it will bring a smile to ours and a flood of fond memories to each and every one of us every time we see his name in the Board Index.

Ah......sweet irony!
I can hear the Caveman’s chuckle.

Would it be a requirement for the photos posted under the proposed new heading to be fuzzy or laser focused?
Either descriptor could fit Dick Kwak depending on if we are talking about sartorial trends or newly discovered casting variations!