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Robert Murch
Robert L. Murch Jr. was born in Lewiston, Maine on February 20th 1974. He is the second and youngest child of Robert L. Murch Sr. and Carol Shulman. Robert grew up in Portland, Maine and moved to Massachusetts when his mother married for the second time to Michael Sapol. He attended Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and attended college at the University of Connecticut, University of New Hampshire, University of Massachusetts in Boston, and Salem State College. Robert married Gary Halteman on May 17th 2004 on the steps of City Hall in Salem, Massachusetts. Robert's grandmother, Sarita Shulman, loved horror/science fiction and they often spent hours watching Creature Double Feature together. Perhaps black and white movies planted the seeds that would grow into a full fledged obsession. After watching the movie Witchboard in 1986 his strange relationship with the Ouija board began. Robert purchased his first antique Ouija board in the summer of 1993 while attending college in New Hampshire. After his second purchase he realized there were many different Ouija boards and continued collecting. Distance has never been an issue for Robert, and he is known to drive hours for a board he doesn't yet possess. Though he never mentions costs it is rumored he has spent a small fortune collecting these rare talking boards. He currently claims to own over 300 different talking boards. He also collects all things William Fuld. As he studied the history of the Ouija board and William Fuld, he often found inaccurate and poorly researched articles. This inspired his extreme research methods often traveling to Maryland and tracking down descendants of all those involved with the invention of the Ouija board. He has spent over fifteen years uncovering the final resting places of these gentleman that have been long lost to history. To date he has discovered the grave sites for William Fuld, Isaac Fuld, Elijah Bond, Harry Welles Rusk, William H. A. Maupin, Col. Washington Bowie, Washington Bowie, Jr., Charles Kennard, and E. C. Reiche. John T. Green's grave continues to elude him and that search continues. In the fall of 1997 Robert Murch found himself in the middle of the ninety-six year old Fuld family feud. While researching the history of William Fuld and the Ouija board, he created a website called “OuijaWitch's Wonderful World of Talking Boards.” Through the site he received e-mails from both Kathy Fuld, William Fuld's granddaughter, and Stuart Fuld, Isaac Fuld's grandson. Both Kathy and Stuart had similar questions about their family and through those questions were able to bridge a century and bury the hatchet. With Robert's urging, Kathy called Stuart and the family feud was over. Though the Fuld family often credits him with ending the feud he prefers to credit them and the Ouija board. Robert Murch is the Fuld family's personal historian and is considered the foremost expert on the history of William Fuld and the Ouija board. Kathy and Robert believed that between the two of them they had the perfect formula to launch the next generation of talking boards. On January 6th 1999 Kathy and Robert filed for a trademark on the word Cryptique and two copyrights on its directions and on the layout of the board. They then incorporated in Maryland under the name Thomas & Long, LLC. On October 29th 1999 they assigned the interests of those registrations to that company. That next year Kathy decided step back from the company to become Cryptique's biggest fan. Robert and his then fiance, Gary Halteman, incorporated in Massachusetts as Spirited Ventures Inc. On September 18th 2000 Thomas & Long, LLC assigned the Cryptique trademark and both copyrights to Spirited Ventures, Inc. They also registered a new trademark on Let The Spirit Move You®. This mark became Cryptique's tag line and appeared on its planchette or seer . With that move to Massachusetts Cryptique officially became “A Spirit Board from Salem, Massachusetts” which appeared on the front of its box as well. Since then Robert has worked with Dreamworks Studio as their Ouija consultant and made appearances on Showtime, The Travel Channel, MTV, and the BBC. He has also been featured in articles published in the Associated Press, USA Today, CNN.com, ABCNews.com and various local newspapers. He is a regular expert presenter at Salem's annual Festival of the Dead. Robert Murch resides in Boston, Massachusetts and is employed by the country's largest investment company. He is presently working with Baltimore city officials, the Maryland Historical Society, The Baltimore Museum of Industry, and the Maryland State Archives to preserve their Ouija legacy and document their favorite son, William Fuld. There are whispers that he is currently working on a book about William Fuld and the Ouija board. He is also working to raise funds to purchase and install a gravestone for Elijah Bond, the first person to patent the Ouija board on February 10th 1891. To contact Robert click here. |
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