Comments on: Blog Backlog: Roger W. Hollander, Irma Lake, and “Buffalo Bill” Gates

By: Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl

Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:20:01 +0000

Susi, any word on how Rodger is doing these days? I would love to hear from him.
Thanks, Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl

By: Susi

Susi — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:50:36 +0000

Thanks for your wonderful comments, Laurie!

By: Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl

Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:54:37 +0000

Roger, you were always a class act! Even when you decorated Mike’s car after the wedding. He hated it … I loved it.
Laurie Kukachka Smyrl

By: Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl

Laurie (Kukachka) Smyrl — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:53:07 +0000

Susi, thank you for the wonderful story and pictures of Roger’s life at the ranch. What a beautiful setting for this wonderful man and his outstanding collections. I knew Roger’s family and worked for Roger back in the 1970’s. We had lost touch many years ago and I had often wondered where he went after leaving Minneapolis. By all appearances he had a wonderful home filled with friends …. and, of course, good wine. If ever you get the chance please tell him hello and I pray for his full recovery. I must admit to a good chuckle when I saw the pictures of his kitchen! It so reminded me of his office … always a mess but full of amazing items.

By: Thomas Murray

Thomas Murray — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:04:38 +0000

This is a lovely tribute to a fabulous man, Roger Hollander, nothing less than an “across the board genius,” from technology to the humanities, who loved Life so much that he survived an accident no one else would have…As an update, Roger has made tremendous strides in his recovery, thanks to the support of modern medicine, his family, and friends like Susi Johnston! Now that the ranch is sold, there is no security reason not to show a photo (that you may have, Susi) of Roger’s temperature controlled textile collection room chock-a-block with rolls of the greatest Asian textiles…I joked with him about how he must of misinterpreted when he heard the other gentleman cowboys speaking around the bar at Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel in Cody, Wyoming, when he heard them say they collect Indian textiles…they meant Navajo blankets, de rigueur adornment for Ranches in the Rockies…but Roger always was a contrarian, and that thanks to turning East at the Fork, he created the greatest collection of Indian Trade Cloths in the Western World. Susi Johnston helped him achieve that, for which she is too shy to mention, but I will. And with that photo of Susi about to dive in Irma Lake, I sure know why the trout were biting the next time we went down to the water not long after, hoping to nibble a nymph no doubt… but getting instead Danny Shaffer, Tony Hazledine of Hali magazine and moi, no doubt less tasty morsels. We were brought to the “secret spots” by guide Roger at the tiller of the boat, bringing us nouveau fly fishermen where the big lunkers lived under logs….So here is a toast to the memory of the Irma Lake Lodge and Roger’s famous hospitality…and although that time/space loci may have passed for all of us who loved it there, it stays vividly in our memory…Roger would be the first to encourage new collectors to form visionary collections and create scholarship retreats in beautiful places. Who will be the next to take up this meritorious mission, which turns out to be such good, clean fun!
Wishing all the best,
-Thomas Murray