Sam Schlifer
by Robert Lansdale
Toronto. Our good friend and fellow PHSC member Sam Schlifer passed away this past Monday, December 18, 2017. I last saw and spoke with Sam at our fall fair on October 15th.
Sam joined the PHSC back in 1980. Amongst other things, he enjoyed collecting and using Leica gear and 3D photos and accessories. In 1983 he and I swapped a couple of Leica lenses. I got an old VAROB enlarger version of the famous Elmar while I traded Sam an old camera version.
Our membership secretary, Wayne Gilbert, sent me a note. He said, “I’m sorry that I missed the announcement. Sam was one of my very first customers at the Camera Hobby Centre in Crang Plaza in 1957. At that time he was working for Murphin’s Heating and had a huge collection of 2”x 3” photos of wartime stuff which he often brought into my store to discuss.
“We kept our relationship over these 60+ years and, with many other people, I won’t forget him.”
My thanks to Bob Lansdale for this colour image of Sam taken recently. Sam wrote a couple of articles in the Photographic Canadiana, and was involved for a time in the executive of the PHSC as I recall.
