Six Napoleons of Baltimore - 1st March 2024

The Six Napoleons of Baltimore switched to a new format for 2024, with two meetings each year, both held at the Maryland Club. The meeting had a wonderful group of out-of-town visitors, partly due to the memorial service being held the following day in Baltimore for John Baesch BSI.

Attendees dining at the Six Napoleons of Baltimore dinner, in the Ladies Room at the Maryland Club, Baltimore, 1st March 2024. Left side of table L-R: Greg Ruby, Matt Hall, S Brent Morris, Jacquelynn Bost Morris, X, Y, Monica Schmidt, Patrick Ewing, X, Y. Head of table: X. Right side of table L-R: Terry McCammon, X, Y, Andy Solberg, Bob Katz, Scott Monty, Ashley Polasek, Curtis Armstrong, Mickey Fromkin, Ira Matetsky, Karen Wilson.  (Please let me know names I'm missing!).

The Scion has a delightful agenda, with multiple toasts before dinner. During dinner, there is a presentation by a Postulant who has met all the qualifications for membership - the final being the presentation of a paper - followed by the installation of the Postulant as a Napoleon. The Postulant at this this meeting was Ira Matetsky of New York, who spoke about the first US  publication of some of the last Sherlock Holmes short stories in Liberty Magazine. Following his presentation, Ira was installed as a Napoleon (with all associated ceremony).

The dinner was a convivial affair, and was the first of a new tradition of dining at the Maryland Club.

The group 'Stood on the Terrace' for David A. Weiss, Napoleon XIV - in other words, the 14th member of the Six Napoleons! Karen Wilson read out the obituary and I wanted to include it here as a permanent record. Karen gave extensive credit to to Julie McKuras’ piece on Mr. Weiss in the Spring 2008 edition of the BSI Trust newsletter when creating the obituary. I also found a photograph of David A Weiss in the aforementioned issue that I've placed here.

David Ansel Weiss BSI (1922-2020)

David Ansel Weiss was born on January 29, 1922, in Cumberland, Maryland. His father, Harvey Weiss, was the city health official in Cumberland, and was described by his son as "an inveterate reader, [one of whose] favorite books was the Canon.” After graduating with a degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1943, David worked as a chemist, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the War. After his discharge, he moved to Baltimore and took a position with the War Department to edit a volume on the history of the Corps of Engineers. It was during this period, he said, that his own interest turned to Sherlock Holmes. Having read copies of the Baker Street Journal at the Enoch Pratt Library, he wrote and submitted a story called “The Celestial Pastiche,” about a Sherlock Holmes pastiche contest held in heaven which was won by an Arthur Conan Doyle, referred to in the story only as “an author on earth of historical novels.” David later credited Edgar W. Smith’s enthusiastic response to the piece with emboldening him to leave the War Department and move to New York to become a freelance writer.

Around the same time, Napoleon Allen Robertson invited him to join the Six Napoleons of Baltimore; Weiss passed the admissions test to become Napoleon number XIV. In an interview for the BSI Trust in 2008, he recalled a Robertson-led Six Napoleons trip to Poe’s grave that was also attended by John Dickson Carr, “where, waving our lanterns, we recited the Musgrave Ritual and almost got arrested.”

David’s investiture in the Baker Street Irregulars was “Crosby, the Banker.” He enjoyed a friendship with Edgar W. Smith and remembered fondly his opportunities to meet other noted Sherlockians over the years.

His successful career as a writer, publicist, and market research company executive saw him listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who. Publications he authored included books on The Great Fire of London and The Saga of the Tin Goose: The Story of the Ford Trimotor (The Plane That Revolutionized American Civil Aviation). 

He was married, his wife predeceasing him in 1981, and was the father of two sons. David Ansel Weiss died on Mar. 24, 2020, at the age of 98.