This morning our friend Barry Weintraub (R-2730) passed away. Today was his birthday.

Barry was an outstanding member of the CCA, having served as Club Secretary from 1999 to 2001, and Auction chairman from 2002-2007. He was a very friendly and knowledgeable man and had a great many friends in the hobby.

I first met Barry in 2000, my first active year in the CCA. He would attend the local Southern California club meetings and all of CT’s and Jim’s collectibles shows in SoCal as well as all of Doug’s auctions. When he became Club’s Auction chairman in 2002, he enlisted me to do the Club Auction catalog, which I still do to this day. We also did quite a few chip deals together as partners.

A couple of years later, we started playing poker on a regular basis in his office in Studio City. The game went on for many years and on Barry’s retirement it moved to Richard Huber’s house in Burbank (at which time Andy Hughes named it “The Aquarium”) and eventually to the Burbank Moose Lodge. The game included me, Richard H., Bud W., Stu L., Steve B, Steve A., Marc S., Shawn G., and Greg I., among others. Barry was the one that "got away".

Barry eventually relocated to the Seattle area to be near his children and he remained there until now. He enjoyed playing poker at the many small card clubs in the Seattle area and also, of course, at the Club tournaments and the Whiner’s Invitational.

Barry stayed in regular contact with me and others, and I’ll miss him dearly.