Domaining certainly has a future, the last 12 months have seen dramatic changes to the marketplace. Short low-value domains have increased in value over a very short period, numeric domains have become hugely popular and liquidity has entered domaining which has never been seen before.
As with...
The owner obviously has little interest in domains or has passed away. I'm surprised it wasn't sold with all the 100s of offers they must have received over the years.