The Ottawa Fountain Pen Society

Somewhere in the the winter of 2001, the idea to get together with a couple of friends and talk about pens, paper and ink was suggested. The Zoss pen chat line on the internet was the locale for a chance meeting of a couple of fellows in Ottawa with a long and deep interest in fountain pens.

Therefore, on the 8th of October 2002 the very first Ottawa Pen club meeting was held at George and Willie Cornwall's home in Kanata. We are lucky to have evolved into intelligent beings with an unique ability. Our power of writing has been the thread of history books, of endless stories and records of the past. The fountain pen has played a crucial role in the last century in the recording of history through the written word and to the communications explosion which has helped characterize modern society. Can we content to sit back and watch the tool that got us here be replaced and forgotten?

The idea, was to talk about the relative merits of different vintage fountain pens, the advantages and disadvantages of modern versus vintage fountain pens and to discuss the ways and means of repairing and restoring vintage pens. The informal get-togethers consisted of a few people brought together by the magic of the
fountain pen.

The earliest meetings of George Cornwall, John Nash and Jimmy Tom were followed by discussions which included Leigh Swain, Bernie Gagnon and Darrell Seymour-Howell. Soon others joined as Harvey Miller, Tony and Rocco Maso, and Shelley Posen were sought out and encouraged to contribute to the discussions.

And so it had started, the fountain pen Club of Ottawa had begun and spread. It was found appealing to more and more pen enthusiasts and before long there was agreement that a history of the Ottawa pen club meetings was needed.