AMESBURY: Robert A. "Bob" Vlack, 88, died on August 11, 2015, in the Maplewood Nursing Home in Amesbury.
He was born on January 29, 1927, and raised in South Bronx, N.Y., during the Depression years. He moved to Connecticut, entered the military, serving during WWII in the Army as a medic and entered college under the GI Bill and did his graduate studies at Northern University and MIT. Being the proverbial (and literal) "rocket scientist," Bob used his engineering skills working in ground support for the Titan Missile program. Later he was employed as a Project Engineer for Western Electric.
At the age of 50, he retired from the 9-to-5 workforce and became a coin dealer. It was at this time that he served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Legislator. Bob started collecting shortly after WWII and later decided to specialize in collecting and studying the coinage and paper money of our colonial times. In the 1950's, he started doing serious numismatic research and over several decades he constructed photographic plates of colonial coin images, assisting the collector in identifying die varieties. Several colonial coin die varieties are known by the Vlack numbering system, including the coinage of Machin's Mill and St. Patrick Halfpence (among others). He wrote articles in various numismatic publications, including eighteen of them in the Colonial Newsletter.
His first book, Early American Coins, was published in 1965. In 2001, he published, Early North American Advertising Notes, and in 2004 he published, The French Billon Coinage in the Americas (a C4 publication). This book won the Fred Bowman Literary Award by the Canadian Numismatic Research Society in 2005. Bob also was involved in the editing and rewriting of many numismatic books we enjoy today. In 2007, the Colonial Coin Collectors Club awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bob was active in, and a member of many numismatic organizations. He was president of the Collectors Club of New England and La Societe Americaine. In addition to his writings, he gave educational presentations as the featured speaker for many clubs and numismatic organizations.
Bob was always willing to help collectors from the novice to the expert. On the bourse floor, his table was never empty - between helping customers with an inventory that had something for everyone, or assisting a researcher, or educating a collector. Bob always had a smile on his face and a welcoming demeanor. His passion for numismatics was addictive. He will be missed by many and remembered through the ages for his numismatic contributions.
He is survived by his three daughters, Diana Reardon and her husband, Michael of Lakeland, Fla., Cheryl Wheeler and her husband, John of Lawrence, and Doreen Ruth and her husband, Toby of Copperas Cove, Texas; three sons, Thomas Vlack and his wife, Patricia of Plaistow, N.H., James Vlack and his wife, Annie of Haverhill, and Robert Vlack and his wife, Angie of Kingston, N.H.; 13 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, Donald Vlack.
At the request of the family, funeral services were privately held on Friday. Interment was held in Holy Angel's Cemetery in Plaistow, NH.