Rick Marschall remembers Walter Berndt

Comics historian Rick Marschall remembers Walter Berndt, who drew the "Smitty" comic strip for fifty years. I was fortunate to be chair of the Long Island National Cartoonists Society Chapter, nicknamed the "Berndt Toast Gang" in his honor.

I came along after Mr. Berndt had passed away, but Rick knew him well, and shares some memories:

"Walt lived in Port Jefferson, in a grand house on a promontory, and I occasionally visited him after I started a job as cartoonist and editor at the Connecticut Herald. It was old-fashioned fun, actually, to take the Bridgeport-Port Jeff ferry. Once my fiancee Nancy joined me (Sagamore Hill was on the agenda that day too) and she was charmed by thye old boy.


"The only people who were not charmed by the warmth and friendliness of Walter Berndt were those who had not met him."