In Memoriam. William Supplee Lloyd

I9fomatr. WILLIAM SUPPLEE LLOYD. WILLIAM SUPPLED LLOYD, a member of the Board of Dir¬ ectors of this Society, manufacturer and leading specialist in editions of Robinson Crusoe, died at his home in Germantown, May 5, 1920. The eldest son of William Jones Lloyd, of the Lloyd-Supplee-Walton hardware firm, by his wife Anne Eliza¬ beth Custer, he was bom at La Crosse, Wisconsin, February 12, 1860, and was descended from Robert Lloyd and his wife! Lowry Jones, Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania as early as 1683. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of ’82, Mr. Lloyd succeeded as a textile manufacturer at a compara¬ tively early age and was the proprietor of the Stratford Knit¬ ting Mills, at Wayne Junction, which he operated for more than a quarter of a century. He was, however, determined not to allow business to absorb him. He worked gladly for the material things of life that he might enjoy those of the spirit and help others, and he enjoyed living best, when he saw that others about him enjoyed it too. How much he did to stimulate interest in the Navy during drab years, how strenu¬ ously he labored for the Nation during the late war, how every civic cause had his ear, all this and much more is of general local knowledge, but he was known to the literati the world over as the man who loved Robinson Crusoe. His literary tastes were broad and it was solely by accident that he be¬ came a De Foe specialist, but once aroused he combed the world for editions in every language. He is credited with possessing the most comprehensive collection of editions of Robinson Crusoe in the world, that in the British Museum possibly excepted, amounting to more than four hundred vol¬ umes, including seventy-five undated English editions, one hundred and sixty-one dated English editions, fourteen child¬ ren’s editions, eight in the French language, six in German, (ill) 112 Memoir. two in Latin and thirty-five in Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Irish, Japanese, Latin, Mexican, Yiddish and other languages, and one in shorthand. Among Mr. Lloyd ’s ‘‘ Crusoes ’’ are not only copies of the two issues of the first edition, April, 1719, but of each of the seventy-eight issues between 1719 and 1819 ; and of the 1‘ Crusoes ’’ printed since then his list is large. At the time of his decease he was a vestryman of St. Peter’s Church, Germantown, and president of the Men’s Club and of the Literary Club of that Parish; one of the Council of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania ; a director of the Naval His¬ tory Society, and the Navy League of the United States; chairman of the Navy Committee of the Young Men’s Chris¬ tian Association, and a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, the Union League, Racquet, Phila¬ delphia Cricket and Germantown Cricket clubs of Philadel¬ phia; the Crolier, and Army and Navy clubs of New York j the Biblio Philo Club of Austin, Texas, and the Philo Biblon Society of Philadelphia. He was also deeply interested in the Pennsylvania Seamen’s Friend Society, and the Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia. Mr. Lloyd married April 27, 1893, Ida, widow of Thomas J. Mustin and daughter of the late Henry A. Croskey of Philadelphia, who survives him with two step-sons: Captain Henry Croskey Mustin, U. S. N., and Major John Burton Mustin, U. S. A. Natures such as Mr. Lloyd’s are rare, and when gone cannot be quickly for¬ gotten. “ A man of generous impulses and winning person¬ ality, and a faithful, zealous and efficient worker for God and man, he will be greatly missed in many spheres of usefulness in which his earnestness and devotion made him an important factor,” says one of many testimonials. 5 :