From Monday’s Corning Leader newspaper
http://www.the-leader.com/news/x50622915/Remembering-Rockwell-a-Corning-icon

Monday morning’s recollections from a few of our e-mail list
I am sure that you have received many anecdotes about Mr. Rockwell. Here’s another. Many years ago, we purchased a tall cologne
bottle from a dealer in Ontario. I had started collecting at 15 and these dealers never had given me bad information. They said the bottle
was Steuben Verre de Soie and unsigned because Verre de Soie was never signed. Many years later, we took it on a visit to Corning. We had in the Main Street shop on a day that Mr. Rockwell was present. I told him that we didn’t have many pieces of Steuben but could he verify the cologne bottle. His smiling reply was this. ” You can always tell if an article is genuine Steuben if a dealer wants to purchase it from you. And I’ll offer you $250.”Although I have collected many things over 45 years from many dealers, you rarely get a great line like this.
When we go to Corning, the Steuben collection and the Rockwell Museum with its Bierstadt are so special. Our Sympathies to all. Regards,
Jeremy and Jan Hayes, Port Dover, Ontario

Corning will be a different kind of place without Bob Rockwell. Carol Ketchum

“From a cork board above my desk, the peaceful countenance of a 1901 Liberty Head silver dollar watches over me. Every time I see it I smile and think about the man who gave it to me, Robert F. Rockwell Jr. I received this treasured memento years earlier when it was stealthily placed in my palm as I shook hands with Mr. Rockwell during a visit to his art gallery in Corning. He gave me the coin with a twinkle in his eye and the kind of delivery that could only come with repeated practice. Mr. Rockwell was a consummate collector, of material things as well as people. He had set a high standard in collecting, and I aspired to the same. I was visiting that day to share with him glass rarities I had discovered that were designed by Mr. Rockwell’s esteemed friend, the venerable Frederick Carder who had founded the Steuben Glass Works. Carder and Rockwell had enjoyed a remarkable relationship. Rockwell deeply admired and championed the creative life’s work of Carder, and Carder reciprocated by sharing his glass making passion with Rockwell. The coin that I received from Mr. Rockwell represents to me the man I came to know and will always remember. It was as much a gift to me as a reminder of a tradition fostered by Fred Carder of sharing yourself with others. Carder had done this for Rockwell, Rockwell had done this for me, and now I was able to return the favor. “Robert Rockwell had memorialized Frederick Carder with the simple premise that through
remembrance we all live on. Now is the time for us to remember Robert Rockwell’s long life well lived. He has been reunited with his beloved wife Hertha, his daughter-in-law Marie, his brother Wilson, his parents, his friends Fred Carder and Paul Gardner and a cadre of other friends and acquaintances he collected and lost over the years. Reflecting on Mr. Rockwell’s life I am reminded of the Latin phrase “ars longa, vita brevis” whose subtle meanings include “life is short but art endures.” Collecting is itself a shallow endeavor if it is solely for one’s own benefit. Mr. Rockwell shared his collecting passion with the world, and in so doing assembled an enduring monument of art that humbles, inspires and leaves us all better for the experience. Thank you Mr. Rockwell.” Keith Trippi