“Alex was a true believer in the American dream, the most enthusiastic person I’ve ever known when it came to talking about this creative and nutty country we’ve built over the past 238 years.”

That’s how Jeff Sewald described his old friend, Alex Shear.

Alex was best known as a collector of American pop culture artifacts. The collection he left behind is as large as it is quirky: a guitar made from a ham can, a toaster shaped like a piece of toast, and board games such as “Squeeze the Juice,” in which the object is to capture O.J. Simpson before he escapes to Mexico.

Sewald noted that as interesting as those items are, Alex didn’t love them only as objects. “He loved the people who dreamed-up their concepts and the people who made them,” Sewald said. “He always told me that what he really collected were people.”

Sewald said the when he moved to the city 22 years ago, he became one of the people that Mr. Shear collected. “Alex encouraged me in times of doubt and celebrated my victories,” Sewald recalled. “Alex would have answered his phone at 3 a.m. and driven hundreds of miles to help me if I truly needed him. He was singular.”