Nate... RIP

Nate, A good friend died last week.

He was a character, actually several, maybe more characters... About that later.

He was an actor, a carpenter, a historian, a builder, of models, of structures, or sets... of what ever needed to be built. He was someone with whom you traded books...

We hatched grand projects together... The Stand off at Patterson Ranch... a reenactment of the consturction of the railroad across George Patterson's ranch on July 16th 1877, which resulted in the construction of 60 some feet of new track at Ardenwood farm... Voices from the Volcano, reading and illustrations about the 1894 ARU railroad strike... Interpretation in a Small Railroad Museum, a program for the National Railroad Preservation Symposium... and our crowning glory... This Old Flatcar... A demonstation project in Historic preservation and railroad preservation....

I was there the last afternoon... he was aware... but not all aware...

The next morning, after he was gone, I wrote an obituary, not so much for distribution, but for therapy for me...

Sadly, I need to report that Nate Shugars, long time SPCRR member died over night...

He was instrumental in developing the SPCRR interpretative program, as well as a dedicated historian, a talented carpenter and project manager. He was variously known as Patric McSweeney, Mr. Dooley, Father Christmas, the "Pirate who was scared of his own shadow" (for Children's Fairy Land), Zippy the clown (for a South Florida exterminator), and Howie Zatt...

He was a photographer for Associated Press, he worked in a North Carolina furniture factory, he worked in both in Miami, and Southern California in both adult, and children’s theater as mostly back stage manager but occasionally before the audience as well. He may be best remembered for "Voices from the Volcano" a public reading memorializing the 1893 ARU strike.

He served on the SPCRR board, and as the group's General Manager in the mid 1990's, lead the project to build a faux box car to trade for the M&SV car and was the co-manager of the SPCRR/CSRM This Old Flatcar project at Railfair 99 in Sacramento as well as serving on the "Jiggs A Horse for President committee" on two occasions. He was a founding member of the Samuel Knight Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology. In 1993, having discovered that Thomas Carter had never had a wake, proper or otherwise, he organized and arraigned a somewhat late honor for the late Mr. Carter at Malloys, a old school Irish saloon in Colma.

He held an Actor's Equity card, was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and was a one time member of the Commercial Telegraphers Union of America.

He was preceded in death by his parents, survived by his wife Susanne Todd, and daughters Rebekka, and Sara, and grand-daughter Sophie.

In a final misguided act of historic re-enactment, his death was a result of throat cancer, the same affliction that killed Thomas Carter in 1893.

He will be missed...

With the various projects, particularly This Old Flat Car we, or truthfully, Nate created a moto for our efforts... Is qui dicit id non posse fiei non debet nomquam interrumpere cum qui id facit or Those who say it cannot be done should stay out of the way of those doing it...

Sleep well my friend , i miss you already .