Tragic news for fans of Thinker's Press chess publications

I just saw a repost in agadmator's chess feed that links to a news article announcing that Bob Long, chess publisher, writer, seller, and player, has been murdered.

https://www.kwqc.com/content/news/Man-charged-after-74-year-old-man-is-found-dead-in-Davenport-566817911.html

Bob made a large footprint in the chess community, even among players who don't know his name but own books or magazines that he published, and he will be missed.

Very, very sorry to hear this - thank you for posting...

Bob was a great guy, and published some great correspondence chess books!

- A fellow Iowan

@gambiteer said
I just saw a repost in agadmator's chess feed that links to a news article announcing that Bob Long, chess publisher, writer, seller, and player, has been murdered.

https://www.kwqc.com/content/news/Man-charged-after-74-year-old-man-is-found-dead-in-Davenport-566817911.html

Bob made a large footprint in the chess community, even among players who don't know his name but own books or magazines that he published, and he will be missed.

I read this post over a week ago, and am still coming to grips with it. Bob Long was a fixture in US Chess.

@paul-leggett said
I read this post over a week ago, and am still coming to grips with it. Bob Long was a fixture in US Chess.

Indeed he was. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a serious chess player with any library at all who doesn't own at least one book from Thinker's Press.

As a sad little footnote, I think that most people who knew Bob, either directly or indirectly, knew Rita the same way -- if you bought books and stuff from them, it was her signature on the packing slip, if you called to inquire about a product or place an order, she was almost always the one answering the phone, and if you saw Bob selling books and gear at a tournament, she'd usually be there too.

So even though it has been some years since I spoke to them, I knew Rita would remember me, perhaps even without a reminder, and I went online to look for some contact information to send her a card or consolation note, only to learn that she herself died a couple years ago, apparently of cancer.