Ralph Shattuck passed away this past Wednesday on his 81st birthday. He has been in failing health for the past month or so.  He ran World of Lugers and at one time had 500 Lugers in his own personal collection and 1100 in inventory.  Here are some memories I have of Ralph and his World of Lugers!
I am really taken aback by this news. I have very fond memories of Natalie and I flying to Phoenix and visiting him and buying an assortment of guns. He and Nancy were truely gracious people and always rolled out the red carpet for us. Marvin Cook and I went back to see him after that. Then we had the Luger forum conventions there and was terrific to see everyone and spend time with Ralph, Nancy and their collections. I wrote a short story of each visit as they were very important and I wanted to remember every detail. One of the strongest memories was the first visit, when we entered the LUGER ROOM and smelled 1600 LUGERS, Ralph made a comment to Natalie that he wished he could put a bunch of them on the floor for me to roll around in. The other impression was kind of a "Deer in the headlights" moment when the ambiance was so over whelming. I count myself very lucky to have viewed his Luger history written on the wall of his collection and meeting two people that were so very nice to me. He helped me get my business going as did John and Jen Dunkle and many on the Luger forum. I will remain his friend and miss him dearly! He was one of a kind, that's for sure!

I never got to meet Ralph, but this is a huge loss for the Luger collecting circle.

Nice to hear about someone whom is both a collector & a genuinely nice person as well.

I bought many a Luger from Ralph back in the late 80's through the 90's. Spoke to him on the phone a few times too.

He saved me from making a big mistake on an Afrika Corp. Luger that was a fake. I was going to drop $3500.00 on that pistol but had second thoughts. After describing the pistol to him on the phone and faxing a few pics to him, his response was "That Luger is a fake. it's been floating around since the 60's. It goes from one unsuspecting collector to the next. Save your money and just buy a solid,excellent finished matching Luger. You will be better off in the long run"

I took the Master advice and never looked back. That was 20 years ago.

He was a nice Man and will be missed for his knowledge and personality.