Roger Castle Was HSMB’s Leader
Many of you have learned that Roger Castle died recently after an 8-year battle with disabilities induced by a medical treatment. He was inspiring to us as we watched him continue to lead the fundamental work of the Historical Society of Morro Bay despite his physical limitations, proving to us that it is the ability that matters. Those of us who worked and planned with him know how invaluable he was to HSMB and we wanted to share some of that with you.

Roger filled almost every role possible in the Society over the years, from financial and compliance manager to Collections Director. He was there in 2002 when the Society came out of a ‘hiatus’ and re-organized under the leadership of Gary Ream. And of course he was President from 2007 to 2012 as well as being our one indispensable Board member over the whole time. Now we have to cope with that. everywhere you go.

History was the point of it all. Roger and Gary Ream wrote and published the Arcadia Press book Images of America: Morro Bay in 2006 and a few years later they published Morro Bay Then and Now with Garry Johnson adding current photos. When we can keep them in stock (a challenge) you can purchase these books from HSMB or from Coalesce Books in Morro Bay.

Roger had surprising talents and terrific persistence. He invented a unique spreadsheet-based information system to categorize and search our collection, achieving similar functions to a very expensive off-the-shelf software package. He kept our books, wrote for our newsletter, made sure our formal state filings were on time. Maybe most important of all, he provided that necessary source of grit that kept us going. He didn’t talk at Board meetings to hear himself; he listened and his responses were worth hearing.