I remember him well. His poolroom was a breath of fresh air for pool in New England opening in the mid-80's as I recall, a couple of years before the Color of Money boom. He hosted tons of regular tournaments for players of all levels, as well as very well-run leagues. His tables were Schmidt in red oak and had a nice to look at detail on the rails, but every now and then a player would hurt their hand on a hard-struck shot when their hand hit the sharp corners of the rail edge -- ouch. He used Simonis 760 cloth, which in comparison to the rags of old felt like shooting on ice when I first tried to deal with them.
His room and tournaments seemed to do very well until there was so much a boom in new rooms all around New England that eventually the market got over-saturated, and his room, being up in Merrimack NH, was not quite as central as World Class and Country Club and Breakers and Renaisance and all those other rooms that came along afterwords (as I recall).
Rest in peace Al, and thank you very, very much for all you did for pool in this area -- you helped re-start my own pool interest after a several year long layoff.
