<![CDATA[The Genealogy Guru 2023 - In Memoriam: Fred L. Reed III]]>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:18:48 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[TRIBUTES FROM COLLEAGuES: The E-Sylum]]>Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:03:24 GMThttp://www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii/tributes-from-colleagesTHANK YOU TO E-SYLUM, A PUBLICATION OF THE NUMISMATIC BIBLIOMANIA SOCIETY FOR THE FOLLOWING TRIBUTE

FRED L. REED III (1948-2021)I was very sorry to learn recently that numismatic researcher and author Fred Reed has passed. Thanks to Benny Bolin, Cole Hendrickson and others who passed the word. Here's an article Benny provided from the current issue of Paper Money, the official publication of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. -Editor

Our esteemed friend and editor of Paper Money, Fred Reed passed away on Saturday, July 24
 Fred L. Reed III was Honorary Life Member #24. An author, researcher, editor, Fred was indeed a stalwart in our hobby. He was born in Syracuse, NY and attended Oklahoma State University. He joined the Coin World staff in 1975 until he left in 1981. He took over and revitalized the SPMC's Paper Money as editor from 1999 to 2013. He also was editor of the TAMS journal. Besides serving as Editor Extraordinaire, he also served the society as Secretary, and served on the board of governors from 1998-2001. The society awarded him an Award of Merit in 2000 and the Nathan Gold award in 1996. He was named to the SPMC Hall of Fame in 2015. His career spanned many genres.He was the writer/editor in the baseball card field and served as VP with Beckett Publications. His books included Civil War Encased Stamps: The Issuers and Their Times published in 1995 as well as a book on a related topic, Civil War Stamp Envelopes: Their Issuers and Their Times. With many irons in the fire, Fred was an avid researcher on Abraham Lincoln culminating with his book Abraham Lincoln: The Image of His Greatness published in 2009 followed by Abraham Lincoln: Beyond the American Icon published in 2013. He authored Show Me the Money: The Standard Catalog of Motion Picture, TV, Stage, and Advertising Prop Money published in 2005. He was the author of a Numis-mystery series from 1976-1977, and The Week that Was and Spare Change columns in Coin World. A very prolific writer, Fred contributed many articles to Bank Note Reporter, Coin World and Numismatic News to name a few publications.
It was indeed a shock to learn of Fred's passing. I always counted Fred as a friend and mentor. He helped me learn the ins and outs of writing a good article. I was proud to be a contributor to a couple of his books.

Mark Anderson, past President and Treasurer and current member of the BoG of the SPMC remembers Fred; Fred was an unusually perfect fit for the SPMC's journal AND his role in its executive. He arrived at a time of desperate need, and righted Paper Money's seriously listing ship immediately and professionally, getting us back on schedule and fulfilling our key obligation to our members. But he didn't stop there. Over time, he increased the size of the magazine, took it into the age of color, and made anniversary issues true celebratory events.
Fred was a true collector, and his personal publications, about movie money and Lincoln, reflected this. He introduced and championed the SPMC Hall of Fame, and was always a creative, engaged force at the board meetings and in the stewardship of the SPMC.
At the same time, he was intensely private, and we all wished he had a phone, but over time I came to understand how that choice worked for him, and allowed his intensely productive operating style. The arrival of his debilitating stroke could never have been untimelier. We lost an active, vibrant participant in our passion and our lives. We all owe him.

Wendell Wolka, past President (et.al.) and current member of the BoG remembers Fred; I was fortunate to count Fred Reed as a friend and mentor. He was a capable and talented editor and publisher and was instrumental in bringing the Society through a rough patch when the magazine had not been published for a rather large number of issues a number of years ago. He did all this and more without fanfare and was the consummate gentleman who believed in doing the right thing the right way every time. God bless.

Pierre Fricke also a past President and current member of the BoG as well as a currency dealer says: Fred was one of the great researchers, historians, and leaders of our numismatic, Lincoln and other history. I had the honor of co-authoring a book with him on the History of Collecting Confederate Paper Money and his research, writings and advice was invaluable. He has made a great contribution to our hobby and our understanding of our history! I miss Fred greatly and only hope I can carry on his work in my work to the degree he would find enlightening and interesting.

Frank Clark also remembers Fred: I cannot remember when I met Fred Reed, but it was long ago in the 1980s as we both lived in Dallas and saw each other quite often at the local shows and coin clubs. We began to run into each other at a once monthly Sunday only stamp show that was near my mother's house in the early 1990s. It was at this time that I learned that Fred lived near my mother and in fact he lived about halfway or roughly six miles between my house and my mom's. Later when I became president of SPMC in 1999, this fact proved very beneficial as I could visit with Fred either on my way to or on my way home from my mom's.

After Gene Hessler stepped down as editor of Paper Money, SPMC lacked an effective editor and the publication of our bimonthly journal fell greatly behind and several members wondered if SPMC had disbanded. Fred volunteered to serve as editor and I spent a lot of time over at his house helping to get the back issues of Paper Money out. Due to Fred, SPMC went from not publishing a single issue of Paper Money for many months to sending a new journal every few weeks to the membership until we were caught up. Then, Fred started working on our large 40th anniversary issue of Paper Money, which had 160 pages and a massive amount of information on the society.

Treasurer Mark Anderson was so impressed with our hard (well mostly Fred's) work that he had made up for each of us a special award consisting of a model railroad car on a train track attached to a base with a name plate that stated the "Back on Track Award." Fred and I were very moved by this award. Every time I look at the award, I think about those days and evenings getting Paper Money "back on track." SPMC owes Fred a big "thank you" and "job well done." It is the friendships that make our hobby so great.

I met Fred Reed back in the 1980s and became a research assistant for him, helping locate information for the Civil War Encased Stamps book. We corresponded a lot as I tracked down information from the New York Public Library to Princeton University. I was able to hold John Gault's original patent drawing in my hands - the thrill of a lifetime for a collector of Encased Postage Stamps. It was a shock to learn about his sudden stroke. He's already been missed for years - he was the most prolific, hard-working researcher and writer I've ever known, perhaps short of Dave Bowers. Rest in peace, Fred; Thanks so much for all you've done for the hobby. -Editor

Cole Hendrickson writes:
"While my entrance to numismatics occurred after he was sidelined by illness, his research on Civil War numismatics has been a major influence for me. His book on encased postage is one of my favorite numismatic books of all time and I hope that someday his goal of A Numismatist's Perspective of the Civil War will be realized. His passing is a major loss to the numismatic community and I would like to offer my deepest condolences to his family."
Wayne Homren, Editor
​Printed with Permission

More on Fred Reed
David Thomason Alexander writes:
"I read with sorrow the notice of the death of my one-time Coin World colleague Fred L. Reed III. Wasn't it Robert Frost who penned the line "Two paths diverged in a wood..." Fred and I left Coin World one week apart. I went into cataloging for auctions, he to pursue compilation of text books for a Texas-based ministry before his eventual return to numismatic writing and research.

Fred never received adequate recognition for the work. I think of his masterful work on Massachusetts inventor John Gault and his Encased Postage Stamps of the Civil War era. When I protested the inadequacy of this book's recognition by the Numismatic Literary Guild, I was told "It sounds like just another dry book," Confessing in effect that no NLG judge even opened its cover! Dry it was NOT!"

Howard A. Daniel III writes:
"Many, many years ago I met him for the first time at a Memphis International Paper Money Show. Sometime during the show we said hello to each other and started talking about our numismatic interests. We had radically different interests, to say the least. But the interesting part for me was that he collected anything about President Lincoln. It was a time when I was buying common world notes for 5 to 10 Cents each and U.S. dealer junk boxes with mostly world coins in them at $8 per pound. I would put world coins and paper money in a baggie and hand them out at my International Bank Note Society/Numismatics International club table to potential YNs.

"Some of the paper and metal objects were not ever legal tender but token and/or medallic pieces which I set aside for collectors of such things. They would go through the box of them I brought along with me. They often got very excited about a piece. One old collector went crazy about a New Jersey token I remember that came from a box I bought from a Maryland coin shop dealer. It was the missing denomination on paper that he had predicted many years prior to finding it in my box which had to exist. I knew there were also President Lincoln items in the box and I brought Fred to the table to see them. He actually found several he did not own or know about! From then on, I would immediately mail to him any President Lincoln piece I found. He was often ecstatic about what I sent him and he would send me an email to thank me.

"I was in contact with up to around 2014 or so but then he fell ill and I was no longer able to correspond with him or see him at Memphis. There have been very few numismatists like Fred but I hope I run into more like him in the future. "

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
AUTHOR FRED REED SIDELINED BY ILLNESS (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n04a03.html)]]><![CDATA[Rebecca memorializes her fATHER]]>Mon, 20 Sep 2021 23:40:27 GMThttp://www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii/24-july-2021-fred-woke-up-in-gloryFred Leslie Reed, III, woke walking and talking once again, swinging his arms and snapping his fingers (the way he had done when he was happy) fully restored, in Heaven on 24 July, 2021. He had lived patiently and graciously while severely disabled near his daughter's family in Dallas, TX,  following a life-altering massive stroke in 2013 when he suffered this final stroke.
Fred was born 21 Jan, 1948, to Fred Jr. and Maria Mühlthaler in Syracuse, NY, where his grandfather, Fred Sr. was mayor and owned Reed's Bowling Alley and Reed's Esso Station. Fred's parents had met during WW2 while Fred Jr. served in the U.S. Army (England, France, and Munich). Maria had been drafted into the Nazi army but had escaped with her life after intentionally sabotaging the parachutes she was ordered to fold. The mayor of her town, Pfarrkirchen, Germany, intervened and arranged for her to clean the housing where the American soldiers were stationed, and thus began their love story. Although Fred Jr.'s family was Baptist, he deferred to Maria's Catholic background in bringing up Fred III and his younger brother, Michael.
Remembering his early years living in Syracuse with his parents and grandparents fondly, Fred revisited those beloved sites with his children and passed those stories down to his grandchildren. As a kid, he was an avid collector of baseball cards, coins and even post marks. He would go through the trash can in the post office looking for post marks from exotic cities he hadn't collected yet. He shared his father's love of the NY Yankees and Yogi Berra, playing catcher himself in Little League, as did his father before him. In his late teens, the Reeds moved to Oklahoma City where the academic brilliance he inherited from Fred Jr. shone brightly. He graduated from Putnam City High School in 1966 and dreamed of a career writing for his favorite newspaper, Coin World.

Fred married Patricia DeVaney in 1970 while the two were students at OSU, shortly after enlisting in the U.S. army. He spent 2 1/2 years stationed with the 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade in Osan, Korea, as a photographer and journalist for the army's newspaper, The Stars and Stripes. After his honorable discharge from the army, he returned to finish his B.A. in humanities at OSU and complete his Master's Degree, bringing his toddler, Becky, along to study in the library with him and arranging for her to be the youngest person ever granted a library card of her own from the OSU library. He happily worked his dream job as an editor for Coin World in Sidney, Ohio from 1975-1980, bringing Becky along to go through the sorted mail looking for unique stamps and taking her to his monthly coin collector meetings for the frozen strawberry yogurt. He encouraged her to enter competitions with him and doted when they both won their divisions. In 1980, he moved his family to Dallas, TX, to become an editor for Probe Ministries, and to write for the Ararat Report and Christian Fitness in Business. In the late 1980s, he was writer, editor, and  vice-president of Beckett Publications and wrote for numerous other newspapers and magazines throughout the rest of his career. During the 80s, he dusted off his old cameras and enrolled in college photography courses for fun with his high-school age daughter, launching her into a 25-year photography career. His incredible intelligence, exacting standards, and extensive research and writing skills honed over many decades were unleashed on her from the moment that she tested "past high school" as a 6th grader, resulting in a self-driven, overachieving spelling bee winner, state competition winner, Valedictorian with two Bachelors Degrees cum laude. Fred was the greatest encouragement and influence in his daughter's life and took great pride in her accomplishments, most notably, her three children. In fact, Fred's pride in his grandfather, Fred Sr., and the mysterious void of not knowing anything about his parentage or where he came from is what ignited Rebecca's curiosity and career change into professional genetic genealogy in 2010. Fred had always been intrigued by the stories that his namesake had changed his name and run away from home to become the larger than life figure he was to his family and community. Fred thrilled with every discovery as Rebecca pulled his family history together, especially when learning that his own ancestor, James Louis Reed (no, grandfather had NOT changed his name), had run away from home in PA to MD to lie about his age so he could fight in the Civil War like his 4 older brothers were doing. In fact, the Reed line in PA dates back to David Reed born in 1700 in Ireland. None of this would ever have been known to him or his family had it not been for his fondness for his grandfather and his sharing that plus his research skills with his daughter, Rebecca.

He was awarded a U.S. Army Commendation Medal for his journalism and "contributions to the modern volunteer Army."  He was also honored by Continental Army Command, Army Times, and the joint services Defense Information School.  In 2015, Fred was elected to the Society of Paper Money Collectors' Hall of Fame. The American Numismatic Association awarded him a Presidential Award (2011), First Place Literary Award (2008), and the Raymond Award for original and comprehensive research in U.S. numismatics (2008), 3 consecutive Sheehan Literary Awards for Paper Money Studies (2008-2010).  The Society of Paper Money Collectors awarded him 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards for concrete/scientific contributions to the hobby (1996, 2001), 3 Awards of Merit (2000, 2006, 2012), the first Forrest Daniel Literary Award (2007), the Wismer Memorial Award for "Book of the Year" twice (2010, 2013) and 4 literary awards for articles in Paper Money. The Token & Medal Society honored Fred with its First Place Schenkman Literary Award and a special Presidential Award. The Numismatic Literary Guild has conferred 42 awards on him and the list goes on.... He has won dozens of exhibit awards at the local and national level, including the Bank Note Reporter's "Most Inspirational "Award. Fred has been a featured speaker at numismatic conventions across the country.

A journalist for more than 40 years, Fred was employed on the staffs of daily, weekly, monthly and annual publications in 5 states and the Republic of Korea. His positions have ranged from photographer, compositor, and proof reader to Editorial Director and VP of Publishing. He is the author or co-author of 16 books and editor of 9 more. He has published several thousand news/feature/research articles in periodicals. In addition to his numismatic writings, he wrote extensively on his other loves, Lincoln, the Civil War, and Christianity.

Fred's hobbies were emailing his daughter Rebecca (daily), going to the movies (mostly daily), reading, and attending each and every sporting event, talent show, birthday party, etc. for his 3 grandchildren, Grace, Nathan, and Jacob, the children of Rebecca and her husband, Mark Taylor. After his divorce in 2001, he moved back to Oklahoma City to be near his mother in her final years and his brother. The brothers enjoyed this season in their relationship the most, attending many high school and college basketball games together. In fact, for many years, Fred attended every home basketball game of his alma mater, Putnam City, as well as following them to the state HS basketball tournament. Mike would bring their mother over to Fred's where they would enjoy visiting on his balcony and taking in the view from the top floor. According to Mike, "Fred was the 2nd most intelligent person I've ever known, second only to our dad. He was a caring big brother and friend."

He is survived by his brother, two children and their spouses (Mark Taylor and Lindsay Elton), three grandchildren, a niece Susan Reed Keeton (James), and a cousin Bonnie Reed Welch (Robert). For more stories, photos, and family history, visit his memorial at www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii
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Fred will be buried with full military honors 4 Oct, 2021, at the D/FW National Cemetery at 10 a.m. Golden Gate Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to the Taylors at PO Box 572022, Dallas, TX 75357, who will appreciate any remembrances you may wish to send or notifications of other memorials for Fred that may find. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution for his son-in-law, Mark, who has sustained a severe traumatic brain injury and quadriplegia:  https://gofund.me/da8628b9 ​

Fred With His Family 

]]><![CDATA[Fred, the celebrated author and lecturer]]>Wed, 28 Jul 2021 01:07:04 GMThttp://www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii/fred-the-celebrated-author-and-lecturer
]]><![CDATA[Selected pages from The Family History of Fred Leslie Reed IIi, Volume 1 by Rebecca Taylor]]>Wed, 28 Jul 2021 01:04:13 GMThttp://www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii/freds-author-profile-portrait-by-rebecca-taylor
]]><![CDATA[24 July, 2021, Fred Wakes up in Glory]]>Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:59:08 GMThttp://www.thegenealogyguru.com/in-memoriam-fred-l-reed-iii/fred-leslie-reed-iii-graduation-putnam-city-high-school-oklahoma-city-ok-1966Today, my precious daddy, Fred L. Reed III, woke up in Glory. I’m sure his parents and grandparents were excited to welcome him and start showing him around. Or, he is still standing with his Saviour in awe, and he’ll catch up with them later.

Dad’s passions were his family (and I’ll always be grateful he never missed a birthday, concert or a ball game), and writing. Now, he has massive scope for both.
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I love you, Daddy, with my whole heart, and I’ll miss you until the day we are reunited. Your life here was outstanding, and I’m so proud of and grateful for your influence on my whole life. When we met last, I sobbed on your chest over my husband's tragic circumstances and your comfort and sweet words, “Oh, Becky. Oh, Becky…” will always be with me.
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