June 25, 2025 and one hundred years ago on this day in 1925, Clarence “Bob” Hyde, the first and only president of the Burroughs Bibliophiles was born in Warren, Ohio. The next five paragraphs are from his obituary written by Linda Wilson Fuoco for the Pittsburg Post-Gazette:
Clarence B. "Bob" Hyde was one of 13 U.S. Steel employees selected in 1954 to learn how to program the company's new computer system. And although most of his professional life would involve computer programming, his lifelong passion was Tarzan.
"His interest in Tarzan started in 1933 when he was 8 years old," said his son, John Hyde, of Butler. That's when Mr. Hyde obtained a Tarzan coloring book and a sweatshirt from the Chicago World's Fair. It was also the year he saw the movie "King of the Jungle," starring Buster Crabbe.
Over 72 years his collection grew to include many items, including first editions of all the Tarzan books, signed by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mr. Hyde recently donated the collection to the University of Louisville's Burroughs special collection.
Born in Warren, Ohio, Mr. Hyde was an officer in the Navy during World War II and a 1949 graduate of Yale University. He moved to Baldwin in 1954, when he was tapped for the U.S. Steel computer training program. When he retired from the steel-making company in 1989, he was the last of the company's original 13 computer programmers.
His wife, Alice, whom he married in 1951, died in 1990. Though his children could not approach their father's passion for all things Tarzan, "we could appreciate it," his son said. The vast collection undoubtedly could have been sold for a great deal of money, " but Bob thought it was important that it all be kept as an integral collection that could be seen by future generations."
Several articles about and by Bob Hyde are located on the magnificent website, www.erbzine.com. I’d suggest starting at: https://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0686.html
I first learned about Mr. Hyde through his “Odyssey, which he shared in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Amateur Press Association and from a note he sent with a magazine I purchased from him the early 1990s.
The two photographs included here are one of Bob with Sue-On Hillman and another of Bob and Joan Bledig.
The drabble for today, “Good-bye, Bob,” was written by a dear friend, George T. McWhorter, after Mr. Hyde’s passing. I have edited it, removing seven words for length. The entire message from George is located at: https://www.erbzine.com/mag16/1663.html
“WHEN A LIFELONG FAN OF EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS dies, it's like losing a family member. Bob was always keenly interested and involved in the BURROUGHS BIBLIOPHILES which he co-founded and served as President for 45 years. He’ll always be "President Emeritus" wherever his spirit roams in the afterlife. Burroughs expressed the hope he would visit other worlds after he had left this one, and I firmly believe he and Bob will meet on one of these distant worlds and exchange ideas. They both have a full measure of admiration and respect from those of us who are temporarily left behind.”
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