The California Chess Reporter

(Volume XIV, #2: September 1964)

ARTHUR B. STAMER

A. B. Stamer, one of the last of the old-timers of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, died in San Francisco in early 1964 after a short illness. Arthur was a veteran of the famous team which played telegraphic chess in the 1920s (and started the North vs. South over-the-board team matches by meeting Los Angeles at Atascadero in 1926), and he was a contemporary of E.W. Gruer, Dr. W.R. Lovegrove, A.J. Fink, E.J. Clark, Dr. G.E.K. Branch, Bernardo Smith, W.H. Smith, J.F. Smyth, L. Rosenblatt, E.O. Fawcett and many other members of the Mechanics' Institute Hall of Game. Arthur won the premier tournament of the Mechanics' Institute in 1908. He sometimes showed the inscribed gold medal to youngsters: One side read "Champion, Mechanics' Institute Premier Tournament." Then came his little joke when he showed the date on the reverse!

Stamer was in his seventies and was a retired superintendent of city deliveries, U.S. Post Office. He was secretary of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, and his death was a sore blow to the club. However, his brother Walter and his son Chet are still holding up the chess tradition of the family. (Chet won a special prize in the A.B. Stamer Memorial Tournament held in May, 1964).