Sadly, I have to start the New Year with the news of the passing of a Heritage Books author.
Walter K. Schroder, 88, passed away on December 28, 2016 in North Kingstown, R.I. He was one of those people who had an interesting life and he was glad to share his experiences through his writing. I first learned of him when I started selling his book Stars and Swastikas: The Boy Who Wore Two Uniforms back in the Willow Bend Books days, before I purchased Heritage Books. It is his World War II experience as a boy in Germany, being drafted at fifteen, captured by the British and serving as a POW interpreter. Over the years I would get to know him personally and after I acquired Heritage Book publish other titles for him. Our telephone calls were always fun to have and I looked forward to talking with him. I always found his interests to be interesting, which for me was a good thing. My favorites were The Artillery Company of Newport, largely because I always thought that books about the early artillery companies in New England were missing from the bookshelves. Because of my personal interest in writing a book about how to research Hessians, his book on The Hessian Occupation of Newport and Rhode Island, 1776-1779, is in my personal library. His novel about The Hessian Drummer Boy of Newport is on my list of books to read.
From his obituary I learned that he used his fluency in German to assist families of Army Air Force personnel lost over Germany in WWII which I wish that I would have known years ago. The conversations that we could have had. You can read his obituary here.
I will miss him. He was unique and I like that about people. - Craig
No comments:
Post a Comment