* Archibald Stiles; Antiques Dealer Featured on TV

Archibald W. Stiles, 89, a white-bearded New Jersey antiques dealer whose Santa-like looks and deeds gained him national attention. Stiles grew up without toys in Westfield, N.J., and ran away from home at 13. After he worked as a carpenter, metal worker and luncheonette operator, he and his wife, Emma, turned a boarding house into Archie’s Resale Shop, a fantastical collection of junk, from century-old foot-powered lathes to Victorian horse-drawn sleighs. Located in Meyersville, south of Morristown at the southern end of New Jersey’s Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, it was described in the New York Times as “a superior collection of junk, a collection that really boggles the mind.” He and his wife were often seen taking rides around Great Swamp in one of their vintage horse-drawn carriages. At Christmastime, he would don a red Santa suit and ride the sleigh to visit hospitals and schools, often bringing his herd of pet deer. Veteran CBS commentator Charles Osgood called the glorified junkman the most fascinating subject he ever covered and dubbed him “Santa of the Swamp.” Eyeing Stiles’ eccentric and vast inventory, housed in a series of decrepit sheds, Osgood wrote: “Most of the speculation had the operation headquartered farther north. Much farther north.” On Tuesday at a New Jersey nursing home.