Lee Pedersen has been helping the antique engine world for many years.
He was literally a cornerstone in our hobby. He took the time to educate many of us in the engine hobby, He set up a vendor "store" at nearly all the shows he attended up and down the east coast, including New England, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Indiana, etc. At Coolspring he built his own platform and roof structure to allow himself the extra time and effort to do what he loved the most. He always had a large selection of reproduction parts for all kinds of antique gas engines. If you needed original parts he would help you find them. If you needed something that he did not have he would usually offer to have it made for you.
I first met Lee nearly 20 years ago. He advised me when needed, shared a lot of knowledge. We became friends and at many of the shows, Simone and I would have dinner with him and Eileen in the evening. He lost Eileen a few years ago and still pressed on. We always looked forward to our dinners with him and some of his other friends. Everyone at these shows would stop by his booth and say hello even if not making a purchase. He would also take the time usually several times a day to walk the show grounds and meet and greet while keeping an eye open for something special. Lee exemplified the importance of good relationships over the next dollar.
The police were asked to make a well being check by a woman living in the back of his second home and workshop location (it was formerly his parents home). They went in and found he had been shot to death. Given the kind of special human being he was, I can only imagine that he may have been the victim of a home invasion gone very bad. There were no weapons found and it is being investigated as a homicide.
Words cannot begin to convey the grief that I feel. R.I.P. Lee.
Gil & Simone
from a local paper:
https://riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com/2020/03/98812/police-aquebogue-mans-death-being-investigated-as-homicide/
A tragic loss. Now to find the S*B(s) who did this!
Here is a picture from Wayne Grenning when Lee & Eileen took
delivery of their Springfield Gas Engine model 24 years ago.
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