AMA News
Nathan Polk
Nathan J. Polk, former owner of Aristo-Craft Trains, died Tuesday, August 6, 1996, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Miami, Florida. He was a native of Newark, New Jersey, and lived in East Orange, New Jersey, until May 1995, when he retired and moved to Miami.
The cause of death was a complication from spinal anesthesia during surgery, said Lewis Polk, his son.
Mr. Polk was co-founder, with his brother Irvin (also deceased), of Polk's Hobby, a five-story hobby shop on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York, which operated from 1935 to 1985. He was a member of the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Model Aeronautics and a life member of the National Model Railroad Association. He was a former vice president of the Hobby Industry Association of America and was active in several hobby organizations, including:
- Train Collectors Association
- International Plastic Miniature Society
- Military Figure Collectors Association
Mr. Polk traveled the world promoting the hobby industry and was one of the best-known personalities in the field. He had just received a "Pioneer in Model Railroading" award from the National Model Railroad Industry, given to honor those who blazed a path for others to follow at the inception of the industry.
Mr. Polk manufactured and imported a wide line of innovative hobby products, including:
- Scalextric slot racing
- Aristo-Craft H.O. trains
- Stadden Miniatures
- Schuco models
- Jetex motors
- Heller plastic kits
- Constructo ship models
- The Atom gas engine
- Mabuchi motors
In recent years he concentrated on manufacturing Aristo-Craft large-scale indoor/outdoor trains (garden-size), which were featured in the Christmas display of the New York Botanical Garden and at the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., that past Christmas season.
Mr. Polk's wife, Ruth, died in 1988 after 49 years of marriage. He is survived by his sons, Frederic P. Polk of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Lewis M. Polk of Maplewood, New Jersey, and six grandchildren.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
