"Mette" wrote in message
...
On 19th December I received a telephone call from
Annelise Smith, John Smith's wife, with the sad news
that John had passed away as the result of a heart
failure, only 51 years old. John leaves his wife, Annelise,
2 children and 3 grandchildren behind.
Mrs. Smith has advised me that since she does not wish
to continue John's websites, including "Wax Museum of
Illegal Stamps", they have been taken down by his estate.
John was the son of Mrs. Marie Smith, who died about
4 years ago, and who was an ardent art stamp collector
with focus on Chinese arts. John's friendship, kindness,
and helpfulness will be remembered fondly by all who
knew him.
--
Ann Mette Heindorff (Mette)
Was the 19th of December 2003 a really sad day for all those who collect the
small pieces of paper usually known as postal stamps? And also for those who
tried to fight, by using their limited means, against the flood of illegal
stamps? Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't, and this for the simple reason
that it is possible to prove that somebody exists (or existed), but much
more difficult to prove the contrary.
For those who aren't familiar with the subject, Mr. John Smith and "his"
site were announced as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ann Mette Heindorff )
Subject: Museum of Illegal Stamps
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Date: 2002-07-02 15:10:32 PST
....As I do not have the time to fight both the illegal
stamps and a private philatelic organisation acting
in the name (and perhaps also on behalf !) of UPU
I have accepted his offer, so the museum is no
longer in my hands and therefore not located at
it's previously announced address.
The new URL will be made known through the search
engines. Any further questions should be sent to Mr.
John Smith,
, who will fight
the illegals instead of me...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Just to remind you that the problem with this site has been that it has
displayed *images* of illegal stamps, this contrary to the explicit
recommendations of the UPU to publish only their descriptions (as presented
by the UPU Circulars).
Because Mr. John Smith (an US citizen established in Denmark) wasn't
previously known as a stamp collector and as a philatelic webmaster (and he
could never be "seen" since the appearance of the above announcement),
because of his too commonplace name, and because of his suddenly revealed
skill in philatelic webmastering, some skepticism has permanently persisted
in what concerned his existence.
I ask for forgiveness his wife, Annelise, his 2 children and the 3
grandchildren left behind if I'm wrong with my doubts, and I sincerely
regret if the *webmaster* John Smith really died being only 51 years old.
It is only one person in the world, the author of the posting cited above,
who can help us to establish the real identity of this mysterious webmaster
but, finally, I wonder who does really care about.
All of us will surely miss the integrality of "John's websites" (just try to
find them on the Web), so
R.I.P. John Smith, the most modest of all webmasters
Victor Manta
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Illegal Stamps: http://www.pwmo.org/Illegals/frame-illegals-en.htm
Philatelic Webmasters Organization:
http://pwmo.org
Spanish Africa:
http://www.values.ch/sna-site/
Remove "um" from the e-mail address to reply
---------------------------------------------------------------------------