Remembering William Frost Mobley
Bill’s phobias kept him out of caves, off airplanes, and away from microphones, but he was fearless when it came to ephemera. In the late 1960s, barely out of the Air Force, he launched a peripatetic career as an antiquarian book dealer and soon was specializing in what was then called Americana. He met his first wife - and great collaborator - Emily Davis at the 1st Cambridge [MA] Antiquarian Book Fair, Hallowe’en 1976. Bill then worked for and was mentored by two of the ‘greats’ in ephemera: Sam Murray of his hometown of Wilbraham MA, and Rocky Gardiner of Stamford CT - both of whom had joined the Ephemera Society (Great Britain) in 1975.
Bill and Emily filled every Society role, including handing all the printing and mailing of publications, the first in 1981. They also created roles: Bill was always on the lookout for reference works that touched on ephemera - and for many years he and Emily ran a Society bookstore through mail order and at fairs. Bill promoted partnering with major institutions for conferences apart from the annual fair - the first in 1991 at The Strong Museum in Rochester NY and subsequent ones at The American Antiquarian Society, Winterthur, Colonial Williamsburg, and The Clements Library.
From the beginning, Bill worked with Al Malpa at staging and sharing Society events. In 1982 Bill joined Brian Riba in the ephemera auction world; in 1994 he encouraged Russ Mascieri and Dave Cheadle in the founding of the Trade Card Collector’s Association; and also in 1994 encouraged Barbara Rusch to found The Ephemera Society of Canada.
Bill styled himself a Chocolate Historian when writing the foreword to Linda K. Fuller’s 1994 Chocolate Fads, Folklore and Fantasies. His and Emily’s enthusiastic collecting of chocolate ephemera led to a presentation at Mohonk Mountain House which in turn led to Bill’s helping to organize Victorian-themed holidays there - with several Society members participating, including Phil Jones and John Grossman.
When Bill relocated to Colorado in 1996, his new wife and collaborator, Carol Teckenbrock, was an ephemera neophyte - but that soon changed. The most active paper collecting in the area was in postcards and the Mobleys began exhibiting at postcard fairs. Since 2016, Carol has been the show promoter for the Denver Postcard and Paper Show held three times a year and is currently the Chairman for the Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair. Bill and Carol established an on-line ephemera store, and their home became a center for good ephemera scouting and camaraderie.
Bill’s ill health the last many years curtailed his travel, but not his telephone ephemera network. Bill wished for no memorial service; he asked that contributions be made in his name to the Ephemera Society of America.
