Some of these dear friends are remembered in this slideshow/video made recently.
Please watch. (3:27 duration)

Willian Clyde “Bill” Baker III

Passed away April 30, 2009. Bill Baker retired from the US Army as a Lieutenant Colonel. He worked as a military historian for the Tennessee State Museum for 37 years. Full military honors were presented at Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery in his honor.

We always enjoyed Bill at our meetings. He was quiet until asked a question. Then he unloaded with a barrage of information coming at you like a firehose. His memory was encyclopedic, especially on armaments in any war you could name.

Patricia Kay Blocker
Charter Member

“Matilda Briggs” (1979) - SUSS

(Obituary notes from Manchester Funeral Home, Manchester, TN)

Ms. Patricia Kay Blocker, formerly of Nashville, passed away on January 24, 2022, at Unity Medical Center in Manchester, TN, after an extended illness.  She was 70 years of age.

Born in Fort Worth in 1951, Kay had a master’s degree in science, specializing in blood banking, and was employed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a medical technologist. Ms. Kay’s interests included photography and collecting wildlife black-and-white prints, especially from the artist Ansel Adams. Her greatest joy came from raising grand champion Welsh Corgis, which includes her little companions, “Murphy” and “Zoey”, who survive her. She was a charter member of The Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem, established in 1979, and she maintained a newsletter for the group for many years. (end note)

Gael Stahl gave credit to Kay for keeping the Nashville Scholars alive, if not active. Kay continued to edit and send out a monthly newsletter. When Gael returned from his two-year hiatus, he contacted Kay, and together they got the scion society up and running again.

A Celebration of Life in memory of Kay Blocker was held February 20, at the Ada Wright Center in Manchester, TN. Billy and Donna Fields represented the Nashville Scholars at her service.
We remember Kay with this document.

Michael Harper

“Nevil St. Clair” (2016) - TWIS

Michael Harper brought a certain savoir faire to the meetings of the Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem. While he did not speak often, when he spoke, his words were thoughtful and often poignant. He carried a deep sense of worldliness and often seemed as though he had lived lives before. His interests were many, ranging from Sherlock Holmes (of course) to cinema, music, and liberal politics. His love of science fiction and his knowledge of the genre were immense.

Harper’s Investiture

To say Michael was a cut-up would be putting it mildly. He was witty, but not overwhelming. When he passed, he passed at his computer, quietly to his reward. He is missed by the Nashville Scholars.

Reece Morehead

2018 - Lomax, the Sub-Librarian (ILLU)

“In The Illustrious Client, Watson records this: ‘I drove to the London Library in St. James’s Square,
put the matter to my friend Lomax, the sub-librarian, and departed to my rooms with a goodly volume under my arm.’

We regret to report that Reece Morehead passed away after a long illness on January 23, 2024. He was a kind soul, and we always had interesting conversations when he attended our Nashville Scholars meetings. He will be missed by all.

”In our presence, we find a remarkable Scholar who parallels Lomax as a literary adventurer. His years of service to the Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County Library have been enriching to all of the patrons who cross his library’s threshold. His desire to learn about the Great Detective has brought him to our table and we are blessed and honored by the loyalty of attendance. So today, with great pleasure, I summon Reece Moorehead to be invested with the nom Lomax, the Sub-librarian.

“I challenge him to provide guidance and literary direction to all Scholars who come calling to him for canonical assistance.”
(from Moorehead’s investiture, 2018)

Nan Ottenbacher

“Miss Violet Hunter” (2011) - COPP

Sometimes suspicion is a good thing and in “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” it’s salvation for Miss Violet Hunter. “She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a woman who has had her own way to make in the world,” is her initial introduction.

An unemployed young woman, Miss Hunter is happy to be offered a phenomenal job. But there are some quirks to the terms of employment which cause her some concern, and rightly so. Her new employer said to her, “Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided always that they were such commands as a lady might with propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?” He followed with questions about wearing a particular dress, sitting in a particular place, and finally cropping her hair quite short.

"I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of sacrificing it in this offhand fashion.”

So there you have it—a strange set of requests with no explanation. We have no strange request of our Violet Hunter. We only ask her to be present and to help us collect “Data! Data! Data!" because we all know “I can't make bricks without clay."

From now forward, Meredith A. (Nan) Ottenbacher shall carry the nom “Violet Hunter” of “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.” We welcome her and shall not require a specific style of dress or offer her an assigned seat or a suggestion of a trip to the hair salon.
(From Nan’s investiture written by Billy Fields)

Bob White

(More information coming)

Charlie Williams

“Lestrade” (2018) - STUD (and other stories)

Charlie Williams played the guitar and sang, loved model airplanes as a boy, and was a fan of science fiction, fantasy, television, movies in general, and Sherlock Holmes. He was also a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is a medieval re-enactment group. Charlie had a brief career as a professional short story writer under the name of C. S. Williams, for which the high point was the story “A Sticky Business,” which appeared in Thieves’ World II: Uneasy Alliances. Charlie was also known for his extraordinary memory. He was an employee at Quimet for many years and then worked at Measurement incorporated.

He joined the Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem, on the spot, when he and Patsy walked into one of our meetings at the East Nashville branch of the Nashville Public Library. In 2018, he married Patsy in the same room at the library where the Scholars met.

David Bradley

“The Tobacconist”** (1992) - REDH

People come and go through our lives, many of which end up being a very faded, even foggy memory. Yet others come into our midst and leave a mark so indelible, you recall their memory almost every day. Such is the man Nashville Scholars fondly remember as David Bradley (top right in photo).

The son of a Tennessee legislator who served as history professor at Vanderbilt, David was a remarkable individual. He served as a legislative aide in the State’s general Assembly as he wrote thousands of memorializing resolutions and bills which highlighted the lives, the services, and the memories of countless individuals and organizations.

While he was certainly not the life of the party, he was the person who generally made the party possible. From his ability to provide an insurmountable amount of potato salad for our dinners, to his knack for knowing what should be collected and not, David was filled with surprises. His collections included Sherlockiana (of course), but his keen interest in politics led him to develop a sizable assortment of memorability from early presidential election buttons to a ticket to see the Senate impeachment of Tennessee’s President Andrew Johnson.

He startled us as he began our meetings with his Bobby’s whistle, and he made sure we all knew when the meeting would happen. We all recall when he announced that he understood how "to play the game," and he played it with vigor and passion until he left us. When he passed, a part of the Nashville Scholars collective hearts broke, and we still miss our friend.

**[Editor’s note on The Tobacconist: Holmes, in REDH, it is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building depot.]

Mary-Margarette Jordon

“Gypsy” (1984) - SPEC

Mary-Margarette Jordan, age 79 of Nashville, TN passed away Wednesday, July 22, 2015. She was born June 7, 1936 in Nashville, TN, to Julian and Jewel Jordan. After graduating from Hillsboro High School, Ms. Jordan became a stewardess for American Airlines.

After starting her family, she graduated from the St. Thomas School of Nursing and became a registered nurse. She worked at St. Thomas Hospital and later Vanderbilt Medical Center, where she eventually became the Assistant Director of Nursing. After time away, she returned as a primary care nurse for cancer patients, attending to the physical and emotional needs of her patients.

She was a member of Blakemore United Methodist Church, where she was active in the "Double Nickels" group, the Native American Ministry, Pathfinders, Wilma Jackson Women's Circle, The Prayer Shawl Ministry, and the Friday Night Cultural Club.

She was an avid mystery novel reader and member of the Nashville Scholars, a local Sherlock Holmes Club. She was also a member with the Frist Center for the Arts and at Cheekwood in years past. She will be remembered for her love of gardening, knitting and baking. (Source: Nashville Cremation Center)

John Oxley

“Charles August Milverton” (2014) - CHAS

Dr. Watson described him this way:

“Charles Augustus Milverton was a man of fifty, with a large, intellectual head, a round, plump, hairless face, a perpetual frozen smile, and two keen gray eyes, which gleamed brightly from behind broad, gold-rimmed glasses. There was something of Mr. Pickwick's benevolence in his appearance, marred only by the insincerity of the fixed smile and by the hard glitter of those restless and penetrating eyes.”

In Nashville, we have in our midst a man who is as wily and shrewd as Milverton, but fortunately (for our modern society)  he has not turned his keen wit and intellect to the dark world of crime. Conversely, provides levity and knowledge to all gatherings in which he is present.  His courtly presence at gatherings makes all of us proud to be Sherlockians.

Today, the Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem welcome John Howard Oxley in into our scion with full membership and responsibilities which goes with this august body. (2014)

When John Oxley joined us in 2014 he had moved from the Atlanta area to Nova Scotia. He knew he had terminal cancer and joining a scion society had been on his bucket list. We didn’t see John for a few months, and then suddenly he attended what was to be his last meeting. He had driven all the way from Nova Scotia to Nashville to be present. He continued on to Atlanta to visit friends and say “Farewell,” because he died shortly thereafter. He was a very sweet soul.

A friend in Nova Scotia had this to say about John, “He was a member of our local Halifax scion society, The Spence Munros, for years before he moved to Atlanta and renewed his membership here when he moved back. His Sherlockian collection of books were sold at a local meeting or two with the proceeds going back into the club. John was the local quiz master here for a long time and was always disappointed in his quiz if anyone got over 50%. They were tough! (Mark Alberstat, Editor of Canadian Holmes)

Mary Jane Price

”Mary Jane” (1980) - SCAN

Mary Jane Price, the wife of charter member Dave Price for 41 years, was born in West Virginia, the daughter of a coal miner who was killed in WW II. After the War, her mother married a sailor, so Mary Jane and her sister grew up in Navy towns. She and Dave met at a barn dance in Texas and married 31 days later. She died in 2011. They hosted several Scholars meetings in the eighties and nineties.

Joel Senter

(Searching for his nom)

The irrepressible Joel Senter with his wife Carolyn in this photo from a meeting in Chattanooga, TN. The Senter’s owned and operated Classic Specialties in Cincinnati, basically an online newsletter and Sherlockian store, quite unique in the early internet days of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, Joel died just days before their 50th anniversary in 2018.

The Senters attended several Nashville Scholars meetings here in Nashville and other meetings of other scion societies, including gatherings in Dayton, OH, and Chattanooga, TN.

Here is an excerpt from our 2nd Quarter, 2018, Plugs and Dottles newsletter, devoted to the memory of Joel Senter.

Steve Mason, on the Beacon Society website, archives some of the best posts by Joel on the old Classic Specialties website, the conduit for Sherlockian interests. This post, from 1966, was Joel’s introduction to who the Senters were and what they were about. By Way of Introduction

The Gathered Nashville Scholars at a May meeting. We miss our friends.