Bob Katz was born in New York City, becoming devoted to Sherlock Holmes while in his early teens. His BA is from Haverford College (alma mater of all three Morley brothers) and his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. While training in Pathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, he became active in scion societies. He then moved to Baltimore, joining the Johns Hopkins medical faculty and eventually becoming Gasogene of The Six Napoleons. He entered private practice in Morristown, NJ in 1987 and recently retired after 35 years in Pathology. He received the BSI Investiture of "Dr. Ainstree" in 1983, the Two-Shilling Award in 1995, the ASH investiture of "Dr. Jackson," founded The Epilogues of Sherlock Holmes, and is also Headmastiff of The Sons of the Copper Beeches. Bob has been a speaker at a wide variety of Sherlockian events and has been published in The Baker Street Journal, Baker Street Miscellanea, The Serpentine Muse, and The Watsonian. Most recently, he co-edited, with Andrew Solberg, two volumes in the BSI Manuscript Series: The Wrong Passage and Irregular Stain.
Michael H. Kean was reintroduced to Sherlock Holmes while in graduate school, when his girlfriend, (Connie, now his wife of many years), gave him a copy of the complete Canon as a birthday gift. As his career took him westward, from Philadelphia, to Chicago, to California's Monterey Peninsula, he became a member of the Sons of the Copper Beeches, the Hounds of the Baskerville (sic), and the Diogenes Club of Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was invested in the Baker Street Irregulars in 1979 as General Charles Gordon. A retired publishing executive, he served as Co-Publisher of the BSI Press and received the Two-Shilling Award in 2013. He was named the BSI's "Cartwright" in 2016, and in 2020 he became the sixth person to lead the Baker Street Irregulars, succeeding Mike Whelan as "Wiggins."
Les is a member of The Baker Street Irregulars ("The Abbey Grange," 1999) and holds the Two-Shilling Award. He served as Series Editor of the BSI Manuscript Series and is presently the Series Editor for the BSI History Series. In his remaining hours, Les is married to Sharon Flaum Klinger, has five children and four grandchildren, and practices tax, estate-planning, and business law full-time.
Richard M. Olken, BSI (" Bob Carruthers," 2006) has loved Sherlock Holmes for as long as he has loved bicycles (and bicycles were his father's family business). A graduate of Harvard University and Boston University School of Law, Richard became the Executive Director and Congressional lobbyist for the BikesBelong Coalition. He was also the Dean of the School of Bartending at Harvard University. Now retired, he has served as Poker for the Speckled Band of Boston since 1995 and is a member of many other Sherlockian societies worldwide.
Michael Pollak ("The Blue Carbuncle," 2009) graduated from Harvard College with a degree in international relations. He was a reporter for The Worcester Telegram, and a reporter and columnist for The Record, in northeast New Jersey, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, before joining The New York Times in 1989. He was a staff editor and a writer on the Metropolitan Desk, where he wrote a weekly column, "F.Y.I.," about New York City past and present. He was one of the writers for "The Lives They Lived," about the 9/11 victims, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He retired from The Times in 2016. Mr. Pollak and his wife, Laurie Fraser Manifold, ASH, MBt, are members of the Three Garridebs, in Westchester County, N.Y. They now live in Phoenix, Ariz. Mr. Pollak has had numerous essays published in The Baker Street Journal and received the Morley-Montgomery Award in 2010. He became editor of The BSI Trust newsletter in 2020.
Dan Posnansky has been a student of The Canon since he could read and he became a "connoisseur" of fine books not long after that. He is remarkably generous with his time and knowledge of The Canon, books and U.S. publishing history, with collectors and libraries.
Dan is a longtime member of The Speckled Band of Boston, where he has served as The Keeper of the Band. Dan is also a most active member of The Baker Street Irregulars ("Colonel Hayter," 1977) and a founder of The Friends of Irene Adler. When not refining his knowledge about books and Sherlock, Dan rusticates in the woods of the great Northeast.
Constantine Rossakis has been a devout Sherlockian since the sixth grade, when he wrote a report on "The Greek Interpreter." His passion for matters bibliophilic as well as Sherlock Holmes continued to evolve since then, and he began to build his Sherlockian library almost twenty years ago, emphasizing first editions, first appearances, and manuscript material. He is the author of numerous medical and Sherlockian articles, lectured at the inaugural meeting of Mycroft's League in Philadelphia, and is a member of The Grolier Club. Costa received his investiture into The Baker Street Irregulars in 2004 as "St. Bartholomew's Hospital," and was the recipient of The Morley-Montgomery Memorial Award for The Baker Street Journal outstanding article in 2004. He will be editor of The BSI Manuscript Series for 2008. Costa remains in private practice as an interventional and consultative Cardiologist in Bergen County, New Jersey, to offset the cost of his expanding family and collection.
Steven Rothman discovered that at heart he was a Sherlockian when he read with great amusement Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. Thus vaccinated by canonical scholarship at the tender age of 12, he was destined to become an Irregular. He soon discovered that his other love in literature, Christopher Morley, was entwined with the BSI. In 1990 he edited The Standard Doyle Company: Christopher Morley on Sherlock Holmes (Fordham University Press). Rothman's long association with the BSI ("The Valley of Fear," 1986) includes editorship of The Baker Street Journal since 2000.
Dan is a longtime member of The Speckled Band of Boston, where he has served as The Keeper of the Band. Dan is also a most active member of The Baker Street Irregulars ("Colonel Hayter," 1977) and a founder of The Friends of Irene Adler. When not refining his knowledge about books and Sherlock, Dan rusticates in the woods of the great Northeast.
Tamar Zeffren ("The London Library," 2017) is an archivist in the New York area. In addition to serving as Content Manager for the BSI Trust website, she is a Baker Street Babe and sits on the faculty of the Priory Scholars. She received a BA in English literature and medieval history from Barnard and a MA in archival management from NYU, and is certified as a Digital Archives Specialist by the Society of American Archivists.