It is my sad duty to tell our membership of the untimely passing at
age 59 of Robert Reinke, long time St. Louis collector of Ampicos,
player pianos and orchestrions.  He restored a few players decades ago,
but when he retired from his work as professional electrician he began
to get back to it and earnestly learn the finer points of restoration.
Ten years ago, I taught him those finer points in an apprentice
position in my shop in St. Louis.

He was especially interested in restoring Ampicos of which he had
several and he went on to restore several for his family members as
well as several of his own.  In recent years he expanded his house in
order to display his growing collection of Reproducos, Ampicos and
nickelodeons.  He was always a delight to be around and always had us
laughing at his large collection of jokes that he regaled his friends
with.

The funeral was Wednesday.  His obituary may be seen here:
http://schrader.com/sitemaker/sites/SCHRAD2/obit.cgi?user=879854Reinke 

Doug L. Bullock