Posting these “missing persons” alerts seems to be working. I’ve posted a couple of messages here that mention people who might be able to help us unravel some of the many mysteries of Townsend Brown’s life, and so far the power of this Internet thingie has proven to be quite useful in that regard. Most recently we heard from a daughter of Beau Kitselman, who was Brown’s “partner” in various aspects of his work.
Now we’re looking for an individual named Joe Currey. Joe was an employee of Martin Decker’s companies when Brown was working with Decker in the 1960s, and worked directly with Brown on the projects that he was working on during that period. Ostensibly, this is the period when Brown was developing the first prototypes of the fan/loudspeaker (that eventually became the Ionic Breeze), but our hunch is that there was something else much more interesting going on behind the scenes, and we’re hoping Joe Currey is alive and can help shed some light on just what that might have been.
In fact, the whole “Martin Decker” thing is pretty much an ongoing mystery. Decker at one point was a fairly prominent industrialist in the Philadelphia area, but his company went bankrupt in the later 1960s and now there is practically no evidence of the enterprises ever having existed. A Google search on “Martin Decker” reveals practically nothing, and the site his operations occcupied on a hillside in Bala Cynwyd, PA is now mostly office buildings and condominiums. There is no evidence of Decker ever having been there.
So, if anybody within the sound of this post can help us find Joe Currey, or has any info on the Martin Decker operations near Philadelphia in the early-to-mid 1960s, by all means, give us a holler.
What exactly are you looking for Re: Martin Decker? I worked for him from 67 till he went bankrupt. Martin had Decker Corporation which was located on the site that later was the Marriott Hotel. He then moved across the street to the buildings which still exist on the 191 Apart. site. The only sign of Martin is the blvd at Two Bala Plaza which carries his name “Decker Boulevard”