— David Dyer-Bennet 27-Aug-2021

(April 13, 1955 – Sept 15, 2017)

I could argue that DavE caused the formation of the Minn-StF Fan Photo Archive. Unfortunately for both him and us, he did it by dying quite unexpectedly.

We (Minneapolis fandom) had met his mother and I think both of his brothers at various time in the past, and because they lived far away a local fan and friend of DavE’s ended up being executor of his will. And we ended up with DavE’s brothers donating his photo collection to Minn-StF. We started the Fan Photo Archive to organize it and merge it with other things collected over the years, more or less formally.

David E Romm (no period after the “E”; that is not a middle initial) used various forms of his name in different contexts or different times of his life. I’m using the formal David E Romm in article titles and to identify him in photo metadata, but he often used “DavE”, and on Facebook he posted as “Baron Dave Romm.”

He described himself as “a real baron of a fake country,” which seems fair enough to me. His barony was properly created (in accordance with the usual national procedures) and issued by the country of Ladonia. In fact, I have a scan of his letter of nobility right here handy.

He came to Minneapolis in the late 1970s, from his home in New York State. He lived at one point early on in the basement apartment of the famed Bozo Bus Building (in fact he was the next tenant after me there), and was taking pictures back then (with a trusty old film Nikon, if I’m remembering right).

Dave’s photos on the site can be seen here.