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Wait a minute, I may be young, but I’m not going to be taken - Ed Rochette

1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

I did not know him, but seems like he was a wonderful numismatic person
from https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/coins/worden-coinage0506.htm

Ed Rochette was about 12 years old when he literally "discovered" coins in the basement of his home in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was 1939 or 1940. His father, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1903, had died, leaving Mom to raise their only child.

As a kid, (my father) had a paper route," Rochette said. "Among the things he put aside were 2-cent pieces, half cents, 3-cent pieces, all that odd stuff. One day I was fooling around down in the basement and found this little purse with all these odd coins and got interested in them.

Not knowing anything about them, I went to a coin dealer (who) said, ‘I’ll give you half face (value) because these are obsolete.’ I decided, ‘Wait a minute, I may be young, but I’m not going to be taken."

He did some casual collecting when he enlisted in the Navy in 1944 at age 17. He was stationed aboard the second Langley, an escort carrier in the Pacific Theater, as an aviation electrician’s mate. He met his first wife, Faye, during a brief stay at the Lambert Field Naval Air Station in St. Louis and moved there in 1946 when he left active duty. (Faye died of cancer in 1977. He remarried in 1978; Mary Ann has been with him ever since.)

After the war he finished high school, attended Washington University in St. Louis, "got really interested in coins" and joined the Missouri Numismatic Society. He landed his first "publishing" job, if you can call it that, with a company in St. Louis that manufactured Christmas and other wrapping paper.

I was in the composing room. I did everything from typesetting to making the printing plates. I also worked in the art department a little bit. That’s where I started cartooning."

It was his cartooning that first got the attention of Krause, who had just started publishing the weekly Numismatic News. It was primarily an advertising sheet with a few bits of club news" with "all advertising on the front page," Rochette said. "I wrote Chet and said, ‘You ought to dress up the front page with a cartoon." And so he said, ‘Send one.’ So that’s how I got started with Chet."

Called "Numispest," the cartoon "was about a coin collector," Rochette said. "I think the very first one was a guy standing there cleaning his coins, and the acid was dripping down, eating his pant leg, and somebody was saying, ‘I think it’s a little too strong for coins.’"

Ed and Faye Rochette would have three sons – Edward III (Ed dropped the "Jr." after his father died), Paul and Philip. They moved back to Worcester to care for Ed’s grandmother after his mother died. Ed went to work for the Webster (Mass.) Times.

In 1960, Rochette jumped at the chance to work for a new weekly newspaper called Coin World.
"They had advertised for an editor and publisher, and I had applied. (Publisher) J. Oliver Amos answered with red typewriter ribbon in red ink. I figured that’s a bad omen. So I never followed through on it."

But opportunity knocked again when Krause tapped Rochette for help with a souvenir edition of Numismatic News for the next ANA convention. Ultimately Krause would hand him the keys.

I started Numismatic News all by myself in 1952," Krause said, "and it never really got its feet on the ground until the early ‘60s. Mind you, I was a carpenter. I was a collector, too, so I knew that end of things. But I didn’t know journalism and publishing. … It took me that long to find out which way the wind was blowing."

The rest of the story here https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/coins/worden-coinage0506.htm

https://news.coinsblog.ws/2018/01/26/ed-rochette-former-president-and-executive-director-dies/

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Comments

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I can't seem to find any of his "Numispest," cartoons._

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  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 23,898 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just a correction: The USS Langley CVL-27 was an Independence Class Light Carrier, not an Escort Carrier. The navy carriers of that era were Fleet carriers (CV), Light Carriers (CVL) and Escort Carriers (CVE).

    All glory is fleeting.
  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @291fifth said:
    Just a correction: The USS Langley CVL-27 was an Independence Class Light Carrier, not an Escort Carrier. The navy carriers of that era were Fleet carriers (CV), Light Carriers (CVL) and Escort Carriers (CVE).

    Thanks for the correction :)

    Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb

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  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 31, 2022 10:08AM

    @291fifth
    I'm learning here


    USS Langley (CVL-27) was an 11,000-ton Independence-class aircraft carrier that served the United States Navy from 1943 to 1947, and French Navy as the La Fayette from 1951 to 1963. Named for Samuel Pierpont Langley, American scientist and aviation pioneer, Langley received nine battle stars for World War II service.

    USS Langley (DE‑131), laid down 10 July 1942 and renamed Hammann on 1 August 1942

    CVL-27 carried on the name and tradition of USS Langley (CV-1)(and was assigned hull classification symbol AV-3 on 11 April), the first US Navy aircraft carrier, which had been sunk on 27 Feb 1942.

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  • BuffaloIronTailBuffaloIronTail Posts: 7,401 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @1630Boston said:
    I can't seem to find any of his "Numispest," cartoons._

    That's OK. For me the story was enough.

    Good job, Mr. Boston.

    Pete

    "I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 27,411 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I like the "numispest" part best

  • 1630Boston1630Boston Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭

    journalist Leon Worden said, “I think the very first {numispest cartoon} was a guy who stood there cleaning his coins and the acid dripped down and ate his pant leg and someone said, ‘I think it’s a bit too strong for coins’

    Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb

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  • pursuitoflibertypursuitofliberty Posts: 6,558 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was an AT in the Navy working Hornets, and I met Ed at the 1990 Summer ANA in Seattle, about a year after I discharged. He was very friendly and personable towards me, passionate about the hobby, and seemed to have a quick wit ... things I always remembered about him.


    “We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”

    Todd - BHNC #242
  • pruebaspruebas Posts: 4,302 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 1, 2022 5:13PM

    Ed was a good man. Sadly he died of dementia some years back.

    He actually appeared on the syndicated What’s My Line television show at some point during 1968-1974. I think he was ED of the ANA at that time.

    I saw it once on late night game show reruns, but cannot find it online, so I don’t know the exact air date.

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