Bruce C. Cazel RIP

I can not remember exactly when I first met Bruce. I think it may have been just a year or so before I left Milwaukee in 1974. He lived with his parents back then and was already a serious military medal collector. I remember buying an 1860s-70s Prussian medal group from him which is still an important part of my collection. Bruce was a quiet unassuming sort who loved researching medals as much or more than just collecting them. His research was so through and complete as to leave me speechless. I never would have thought it possible to find out so much about soldiers who lived and died nearly a century ago. Bruce credited his friend John B Lundstrom who was with the Milwaukee Museum back then, with teaching him his researching skills. Life took us our separate ways and we would occasionally meet by accident at gun and collectible shows. Then at the last ANA show in Milwaukee Bruce tracked me down and we had a nice but too short visit. We exchanged e-mail addresses and that was the last time I saw Bruce. I tried e-mailing him several times but nothing came of it so I thought I got the address wrong. Then this weekend at the Iola Military Show a friend of my from Milwaukee mentioned the late Bruce Cazel to my shock. His British medals were sold by Dix, Noonan and Web and I hear that his US medals went to for an equally good price so that at least his family got a fair price for his collections. Bruce left his mark on the collecting world by publishing a lot of good research. Those of us who knew him will miss him and those of us who never knew him may still eventually benefit from his research without even realizing it.