Sad to hear of Len's passing. I knew Len mostly in his inactive years, hanging out with him at weekly flying sessions, contests and talking on the phone. Len had a retail auto parts business and after retirement would help sell off model estates on his own time, no commissions. A dyed in the wool salesman, I'd occasionally get calls from him trying to get me to buy. I went to his home years ago after one of those calls. He had items from a deceased modeler neatly arranged in his garage/workshop as if he was selling auto parts. I made the mistake of bringing my wife. Len had a sense of humor. Up to the last time I saw him, he would comment on thinking she was my daughter, and my wife, to this day, gives me tons of grief on why my shop can't be as clean and organized as Len's. I have a prized, new in box Glow Bee fire plug from that visit.
Len kept his engines after disposing of his planes and other items and spent his time refurbishing them. He'd call looking for parts to complete a rebuild. On one of those trips to deliver the parts, I came home with a fully loaded Sig display box of balsa. Fully loaded, except for Stunt size and density balsa. It was useless to him ("Get that out of my house!" I'm sure.) but a treasure trove for free flight scale builds. Every time I dipped into it for a free flight build, I'd call and tell him the box 'o' wood bailed me out again.
I walk by that box every day and am reminded of Len. A great guy!
Ara