In case you missed this in the news this weekend - as suprisingly to me it wasn't that big of a deal to the country - we lost a piece of "Americana" this weekend.

Mr. Bob Heft of Saginaw passed away at the age of 67.

I won't go into a lot of details as I'm sure you can find a lot about him on the internet (see links below), but I will say that I knew Bob for the last several years.  I can still remember the day my older brother told me about his meeting the "designer of the American Flag"!  Those of you who've had conversation with me regarding bogus stories being circulated on the internet will know that I immediately challenged this claim.

Well lo-and-behold, the story checked out!

It was shortly after this that I joined our newly reformed Lions Club here in Vassar - and Mr. Heft (a long time Lion himself) inducted me as a member.  I got to hear the story, too.  And an interesting one it is.

Bob's 50-Star design is the longest standing U.S. Flag layout of all time.  And he lived right here in mid-Michigan! 

LINKS

The official Bob Heft website (you can read Bob's story there)

Website about the history of the U.S. Flag