Goodbye, Good Friend!

I find it hard to believe that Paul Herbert, BSI ("Mr. Leverton") died this morning (Feb. 16). He had survived so many health challenges over the last 20-plus years that I had begun to believe he was as indestructible as Sherlock Holmes himself.

Paul was the founder and Official Secretary of the Tankerville Club, our Sherlockian scion society in Cincinnati.How grateful Ann and I are that he was around for the club's 40th anniversary celebration at our home last year! We all had a wonderful time reminiscing, including a very suitable toast to Paul. (His response to the applause at the end was "just throw money.")

Beyond Cincinnati, Paul was well known to other members of the Baker Street Irregulars and contributed two books to Sherlockian scholarship. The first, The Sincerest Form of Flattery, was on John Bennett Shaw's famous list of 100 most important Sherlock Holmes books. Despite suffering a second stroke in December, Paul attended the annual Baker Street Irregulars dinner in New York last month. While there, he and his wife, Barbara, both contracted the flu.

I've written about Paul many times on this blog, which you can check out by using the search engine at the upper left. The Tankerville Club, if it continues, won't be the same without him. 

Barbara Herbert has been a rock for Paul. Please send her your prayers and thoughts.