Ship Modelers Association - History of the Club

I was recently involved in a discussion of the club logo and it was apparent that a good number of members of the club are not aware of the history and meaning of the club logo, so I am taking this opportunity to fill the gap. There have been several versions of the logo, but from the time when Craig Coleman began to write a newsletter in 1975, there has been a logo.

The earliest logo is centered around a line drawing of the Golden Hind.

In January, 1978, a new logo appeared on the masthead of the newsletter. It is a little old fashioned compared to our present logo, and it contains the words “of Fullerton”, to recognize the city where the club originated. Eventually, we came to think of the club as having a wider geographic coverage than one city, and we dropped the “of Fullerton” part.

We considered substituting the words “of Southern California”, but by that time, the Ship Modelers Association was so widely known that it did not seem
to need a geographic tie. Though our club name seems very generic, I am not aware of any other club in
the country with the same name, and people everywhere know who we are and where we are.
The 1978 logo was the invention of Jack Elem who was President in 1976, and newsletter editor from 1976 to 1982. Jack was a leader in the club for a very long time. His explanation of the logo is as follows.

“Some thoughts behind our new Masthead design—

The protective eye dates back to 3000 B.C. and the oldest known sailing ships. It has been used all through the centuries and still can be seen as fishing boats in the Mediterranean.

The beautifully thought out and unique interlocking triangle design is from the Osberg ship of 900 A.D. The Royal Lion in some form has been seen on ships of all the world’s great sea powers since 100 A.D., and has grasped in his paws the initials B. L. in honor of the great Bjorn Lindstrom, who by his beautiful art and fantastic research has possibly inspired more ship modelers and lovers of ships than anyone I know.

Last, but not least, the little sea horse who is trying to look like a ferocious sea dragon in an attempt at a design that modern and at the same time ancient. (He would look great on a club burgee (flag) to be flown from operating ship models.”

You will all be familiar with the carved wood version of the 1978 logo that is part of the podium used at all our meetings. This wood carving, which also gives the color scheme of the logo is by Roger VandeWalker, who came to one of our meetings about a year ago.

In April, 1991, a modernized version of the logo appeared on the newsletter Masthead. It was by Jack Moffett, the club President in 1991, and a professional artist. It has been in use ever since.

We had a club cup that had this logo:

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Editors have usually had a return address with the logo.

The club lapel pin only uses the sea horse.