(erielack) John Willever

[Robert Bahrs <rrbahrs_@_gmail.com>]

The Lackawanna Railroad lost its most honored and knowledgeable historians
last night.  John Willever came home from the assisted living facility he
had been in for three weeks to die in the house he had lived in his whole
life.  With johns passing goes more knowledge of the Lackawanna than anyone
can possible image.

John and Alvin Smith are the two individuals that brought the Lackawanna
glass plate negative collection to the attention of the world, with their
many trips to Syracuse University, and their sharing of the prints they
purchases, with the world. When I visited John last week I brought a lap
top with a thumb drive of the Glass Plates.  We looked at more images in
two hours than John could on a weeks stay at Syracuse. His mind was sharp,
and he picked out some places in NJ that I had no idea where they were.


John grew up and lived his whole life in Washington, NJ. He and Alvin would
spend evenings in the old tower there,  hang around the station, and polish
the brass on steam engine 988 as it laid over in the yard at night. Both
were die hard steam fans, who never took to diesels. At 98 John certainly
has done all he could do to every group and individual that ever asked for
his assistance. He was my mentor, and a cherished friend, who now leaves a
void in my heart and an absence in my brain when I will need a Lackawanna
question answered.


Bob Bahrs


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