Contributor Biographies #13

 

Robert Leone

Robert Leone is an unnervingly close to "40-something" male. He's beyond overweight and into the "pudgy," despite his love of bicycling. He last passed another cyclist in 1998. He works in inventory control (and makes the coffee) at a private computer school. Despite his workplace, he usually has at least four fountain pens in his shirt pocket (black regular, black italic, color of the day regular, color of the day italic) along with a ball point just in case someone needs to "borrow" a pen. The main exception is those "casual Fridays" when he forgets to wear a shirt with a pocket.

His introduction to fountain pens, aside from the usual youthful dissassmbly of whatever he found in the bottom of his father's desk drawer, came when he was 12. His parents, disparing of his ever developing legible printing, much less a cursive hand, enrolled him in a night calligraphy course. It was only in college that he attempted cursive handwriting again, and found to his astonishment that it was almost as readable as his italic hand. He still has a deep, abiding, nearly inconprehensible worship of the Platignum "Silverline" fountain pen with lots of interchangable stainless steel nibs that was his first "real" pen. For some reason he doesn't seem to realize that having to remove the section from the barrel in order to squeeze fill this aerometric-type fountain pen is a flaw, especially to those who like piston fillers and lever fillers.

His hobbies and interests include bicycling, chess (although he hasn't played in a tournament for about a decade, and mixes up Ruy Lopez, the Spanish bishop and opening innovator, with El Greco, the Crete-born painter), science fiction, mysteries, the history of science and pen palling. He spends entirely too much of his free time writing for the pen pal 'zine "Cool World" and "The Espresso: San Diego's Coffeehouse and Cafe Newspaper." To his credit, he does deposit the occasional check from "The Espresso" in a timely manner. He also likes to make his own holiday cards, but that is in part because he's such a cheapskate.

Robert Leone is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego, Revelle College. His majors were Anthropology and Literature (Concentration in Writing), with a minor in Mathematics (at which he's not particularly good, but does enjoy). He's literate in English and thinks he's literate in Spanish (his favorite poem in Spanish is Pablo Neruda's "Oda al Tomate," which should be enough of a warning to anyone who IS literate in Spanish). He has lived in San Diego, California, USA for the past nineteen years. He was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. He sometimes reads his e-mail at rleone@hotmail.com.

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Rick Womer

I'm a veteran fountain pen user, but a tyro collector. I bought a Shaeffer 99-cent cartridge pen while a medical student, under the influence of agraduate student with whom I shared a lab office. I was hooked on FPs from that point onwards. A year or so later my parents gave me a Mont Blanc Noblesse for my birthday, and that stainless-steel dreadnaught lasted through 23 years of heavy daily use, before it became completely incontinent of ink and was pensioned off. Its retirement was made possible by my wife's taking me pen shopping, which had two results: the purchase of a Waterman Preface as a new "main pen," and a desire to have more pens!

So now, our household consists of a dozen or so fountain pens of various ages, two teenage children, (the younger of whom has been bitten by the"pen bug"), two cats, my wife and myself. I work as a pediatrician in a university-affiliated children's hospital, and my wife teaches history in a local college. Fountain pens compete with photography, cooking, choral singing, brewing beer, canoeing, bicycling and hiking for my recreational attention. The nice thing is, they take less time than my other hobbies--in fact, I can (and do!) enjoy fountain pens every time I sit down to write a note at work!

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Vivek Narayanan

my name is vivek narayanan, and please excuse exclusive use of lowercase, i assure you that my letters won't be that way. i hit the magical barrier of 30 years in age recently, and certainly can trace back my second splurge of fountain pen acquisition to that month. (my first was upon coming here from india, of course!). it has helped a lot to be calmed by my trusty companions -- the ones that do not skip at any rate --and it is only very recently that i gave up bidding on ebay after arriving at the self imposed limit of 75 pens. i am ashamed to say that i rarely take the time to restore them, and prefer to stick to the moderns, the ones that can be used rightaway. my most recent mod arrived today from hisnibs.com, and it is a sheaffer fashion that replaces the one i lost while running to catch a bus many years ago. i almost feel tempted to write with it on the screen! if i did, you would be shocked by the brightness of private reserve's sherwood green. it is the best green i have known.

what do i do? well, i am an assistant instructor in physical science and a research assistant to my advisor, so between the two 10 hour appointments, how do i find the cash to support my habit? (yes, not hobby!) well, i don't ! somehow i keep hoping that one day i shall acquire a digital cam and sell back all those pens to ebay, keeping only those that write, or else, get a good postdoc someplace, and continue unabated. given my present propensity toward material acquisition (no spirituality here, at least not if it doesn't come as an apotheosis of a delicious habit!) it shall have to be the latter. so, let's all keep those fingers unstained with ink and crossed, and hope that i get my darn phd in physics, else i'll have to work in a penstore (hmm, not half bad!)

please write me! e-mail exchanges only to set up address exchange, and if necessary, to warn letter is enroute. i have written letters all my life, and still do at the rate of 3 per week, to my parents and friends in india. i tend to write long letters, so please feel free to write long ones too. i find the idea of posting a photo not a good one for my mailman's sake: else all you people will wanna write letters to me! (just kiddin')

oh, i forgot: i live in austin texas, and politically, a radical far left. i love trees, and have seriously considered giving up letter writing to be true to my environmental agendas. this tension between two incompatible loves will keep me writing for therapy purposes thereby bringing down more of my trees. and so the vicious cycle continues.. i play the cello, and quit learning after the third bach suite. what else? i love my 2 kitties. your turn now!

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Bob Humphreys

Finally I have found the time to sit down and do this. One Bio coming up.

Born in early January 1951 (my mother told me I was some two weeks late, delaying my arrival as I didn't like the look of the weather), in London England. I spent my first thirty years growing, living, learning (sometimes), marrying, moving about, and working there. It was at that point the itchy feet took over, and with my wife and three daughters became "delayed pioneers", moving to Canada. Initially this was to Winnipeg, Manitoba, but since then have moved on to Ontario, where after living in Chatham, and Windsor we have stopped (for now) in Waterloo.

For a living I ply my trade of a tungsten carbide cutting tool specialist for a Swedish company. This takes me all over Canada, as the need arises, with occasional trips to the U.S.A., Sweden and back to England. Manufacturing companies I get called to can be machining parts for aerospace applications, petro-chemical industries, or automobiles, but chiefly the latter. (I have no problem with this, as most of my career has been spent figuring out how to make parts for cars, including Austin Minis' and MGBs'.)

My chief interest other than fountain pens is music, notably choral singing, which I accomplish as a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir. We are a large choir of some 110 voices, who tend to perform major classical pieces accompanied by a symphony orchestra orchestra. Other interests include steam railways, old cars and wooden boats, none of which I own (but there is no harm in dreaming).

When it comes to fountain pens, my interest started at around the age of ten, at which age I was required to use them by the then dictates of the British education system. (That is also the reason why some of you may notice that I spell "funny" too.) Pens for me in those days once I had destroyed the family's Swans and Burnhams, were new Platignums (great when new, but the nibs wore too quickly) and Osmiroids. Once out of school, I do confess to a few years hiatus of using cheap ballpoints, but then for Christmas 1970 my then girlfriend gave me a Parker 45, and I have never looked back. I still have them both, with the girlfriend achieving the additional status of my wife. Pens that have joined it so far are just two, a Sheaffer Targa in 1981, and a Parker 95 in 1993, but the Parker 45 remains my firm favourite (although not as much as my wife). My general fountain pen interest is in what I call the classics of the post war years, notably from Parker and Conway Stewart. Additions to the "fleet" can be expected in both of these directions.....

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Milton De Mello Bonani

I was born on June 27th, 1953 in São Paulo, that is the most important city of Brazil because of its commercial and industrial development.

After high school I decided stop studying and start working. Some years later, in 1974 I was very interested in computers and decided to take a course about computer programming. At the end of this course I was invited to work in the school.

Two years later I start working at one of the biggest private bank in Brazil, named “Itaú”, as a computer programmer. I´m still working there as a system analyst. I´m specialized in application systems that control shares of a lot of companies.

I work in downtown, where the best stationery stores are situated. With so many options around, I became very interested in pens.

(In the 60´s my father gave a Parker 51 to each son. All of them were gray with a gold filled cap. I couldn´t write anything without spots, because being left handed person, my hand stayed over the fresh ink. I hated it).

In the 80´s, my sister realized that I was interested in pens and gave me her almost new Parker 51, at a Christmas party. She had kept the gift received from my father during all those years.

Since then, I´ve been keeping this pen in my collection and became interested in reading, talking about and buying pens. During some periods of time I can´t dedicate time to this subject but it is always on my mind. I don´t know exactly why I got this hobby.

Now a days my collection has more modern than vintage pens. Here in Brazil modern pens are easier to find.

I had the opportunity to be at Fountain Pen Hospital in New York city, what I consider a great privilege for any collector who lives out of USA.

I´m very impressed with how receptive and polite are the people who take part of this site. I try to find time to be on line everyday.

 

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