Spring, Covid-19, and a trip to NY.
Author: Gary Kincel

Just when I thought I would be in total lock-down for the foreseeable future with the Covid-19 pandemic raging, I received a call from George Camp about another donation to the Coventry Foundation. George had just talked with his friend Ed Miller who lives in the Hudson Valley of NY, and is a longtime Jaguar expert. As most of you will remember Ed’s wife Karen was a notable Jaguar archivist, very active and well known within JCNA, and the Jaguar Community at large. Karen died way too young, and Ed has continued to work on cars from his garage in NY. Over the course of time, Ed has accumulated a massive amount of Jaguar related material, including a lot of mechanical parts, body panels, books, artwork, and other Jaguar memorabilia, and decided it was time for most of his collection to move on. At the time I did not understand the magnitude of this donation, but it was clear to George that it was big. So big in fact that George had a large ABF trailer dropped in front of Ed’s house prior to us arriving to pack the donated material.
As we were preparing for the trip, George and I called a few of the foundation BOD members to see if they were available to help, and would consider going to NY as the cases of Covid-19 were rising, and the pandemic was at the top of the nightly news. No surprise that those we called were excited about the donation, and the chance to get out of the house and spend time with friends and our hobby. So in late April with hotel reservations made at the local Holiday Inn Express, on a cold, and later wet day, we showed up at Ed’s front door ready to get to work. Our group included, George Camp, Amos Kunkle, Jim Sambold, Mike Mueller, and I wearing mask and keeping in mind social distancing. What a day we had,
working hard, enjoying each other’s company and getting to know Ed. Once done, George arranged for the trailer to be moved back to Columbia SC, where he did the heavy lifting of unloading and cataloging the donated material. There was near 18,000 pounds total weight that once organized, filled a large garage at the Library in Columbia. Enjoy the pictures and my personal thank you to everyone involved with this project, particularly the
donor.