I put a section in my will specifying that my collection would be given to whatever the local NAR section is, to have a sale.

OROC had a sale of the items left behind by a member. He had a LOT of stuff. Motors, kits, parts, partially built models.

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

Short of club and Museum donations (which appear rather limited as options) I'm not sure there is a good way.

I lost my best friend from college just a little less than two years ago to a totally unexpected heart issue. He was into the hobby in a big way, and his sudden departure meant his shop, his tools, all of his finished models, his kit collection, books, and memorabilia had to be dealt with by those left behind. He was about the same age as me, and both of us had big plans for how we would spend time together in the hobby in our retirement. Yet while we had big plans for retirement, neither of us had any plan for disposing of our hobby paraphernalia.

None of his children (who are all adults) acquired much interest in the hobby, and so the value of these prized possessions isn't shared by them. At best, they may take a model or two for their shelf at home, as a reminder of their Dad. Totally understandable.

His wife, the biggest supporter of both him and his hobby activity, was not, herself, active in the hobby, and so likewise she is unable to differentiate the value of different things.

So the plan is for me and my friend's brother to sort the items once the wife is ready to have us do so. Some we'll bring to a NARAM (likely several) auctions; some will be donated to various clubs. And some will find its way to eBay. No doubt some stuff will just be thrown away. It will be a long process, and a clear foreshadowing of what I'll have to do with all of my stuff, for my situation is not all that different than my friends'.

Most things in this hobby really only have value to others also in the hobby, which limits the options for disposal short of actual disposal. But limited space, combined with a limited market, conspire to make this a real reality as we approach our final runway. Not sure there are any good answers.

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John
YORF #003
SAM #004

I have 654 birds in flyable condition, cabinets full of unbuilt kits, and quite a few stalled projects. I have no idea what my wife is going to do if I croak, but I strongly suspect there will be charges of corpse abuse after she digs me up and gets caught driving to work with me dragging from the bumper.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

I like to say this modified phrase, which is way more true than the original phrase:

"He who dies with the most toys, is still dead"


.

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Contest flying, Sport flying, it's all good.....
NAR# 18723 NAR.org
GeorgesRockets.com
Georges'CancerGoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-geo...ay-fight-cancer

Tell the executor of your will the name (contact data) of the person you would like to give all your rockets too.

Tell that person you would like them to have your rockets and keep / distribute / donate / or ??? them per your instructions.

That's what wills are for, right?

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John Simmons a.k.a. "Lakeroadster"
NAR 113985
My Fleet with Build Data: Lakeroadster's Rocket Shop

Best thing is putting a suggestion in your Will to hand the whole collection off to the local clubs. Let the local clubs deal with it.

In my family, the rocket stuff is only important to me. Why saddle my family with a ton of useless crap (the way they see it) after I am dead? What a legacy. I'm already starting to get rid of things. I have too much junk.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

We just did wills and there is a an informal document that goes alongside it called a "Letter of Wishes". This would be a good place to be more specific about the rocket (and model airplane) stuff than we have been so far....

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Thanks for mentioning the LoW - I hadn’t heard of those. We did our wills with a simple template and just had them notarized, no lawyers involved, and there wasn’t any mention about a Letter of Wishes. Easy to do from what I’ve found and definitely needed with all of our high-volume, low-value hobby stuff!

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John Scott B.

NAR #102949/L1

Scott,

Would you mind posting a link to the template you used? And any links to the Letter of Wishes info would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

Here’s the site I’m going to use for our LoWs, seems legit and knowledgeable: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/ins...tter-of-wishes/

We used the Do Your Own Will site - it’s customizable by state and has living will/end of life templates: https://www.doyourownwill.com/

Be careful taking advice from me, I’m reportedly a pretty dangerous customer - fella on TRF thinks I’m r@cist and someone here accused me of being a N@zi sympathizer 😆

Seriously, the process for us was really simple since we don’t own a business, have any real debt or complicated investments - the will was more about formally designating the executor and specifying where most of our assets go.

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John Scott B.

NAR #102949/L1