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Henry
Moderator
Username: Henry
Post Number: 52
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 04:01 pm: | 
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Most of you probably do not know me, as you also probably do not know Stuart Willis of Queensland, Australia. We were active a few years ago. The paths of our recent lives has detoured us away from cameras. I'm not certain of the direction of his because he and I communicated less and less as we both got further from camera tinkering. He was an excellent camera tinkerer...and though I never met him in person, he was one of my dearest friends. We both had unfulfilled plans of visiting the other a half a world away just as soon as our busy lives slowed down. Stuart recently died of a blood clot that broke loose in his leg and traveled to his heart, killing him near instantly.
I only came across this sad news due to the Queensland floods that has been in the international news and my curiosity of how close it might have gotten to "The Ponderosa", as he called his four acres in Samford Valley. After nearly a dozen emails not being returned, I finally looked up his phone number and starting calling daily until, quite by luck, Patricia Mary was checking on his empty house. She gave me the news of his death. This was Friday evening, I am still in shock.
Seems life is as Credence Clearwater sings, "Someday never comes..."
Henry Taber, absentee moderator |
Donnie_strickland
Tinkerer
Username: Donnie_strickland
Post Number: 103
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 07:35 pm: |
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So sorry to hear that Henry. I always enjoyed Stuart's posts, and his contributions to camera tinkering in general. |
Chris_sherlock
Tinkerer
Username: Chris_sherlock
Post Number: 30
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 11:03 pm: |
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Thanks for that news Henry,
I too had emailed Stuart about the floods and wondered about the lack of reply. I hoped I just had an old email address for him. He was very welcoming when I visited him on a trip to Brisbane a few years back.
Regards, Chris |
Mattboston
Tinkerer
Username: Mattboston
Post Number: 20
Registered: 01-2009
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 06:02 pm: |
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I am very sorry to hear of this Henry. I did not know Mr. Willis, but it always hurts to lose a friend. And to lose the knowledge good repair people have hurts us all.
All the best,
Matt |
Chris_sherlock
Tinkerer
Username: Chris_sherlock
Post Number: 45
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 04, 2012 - 02:43 pm: |
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I've only just now finished repairing a nice 1949 Kiev 2 rangefinder camera that Stuart gave me when I visited him in Brisbane some years back. It needed new shutter tapes, and had lain here in bits ever since I got it home, but every xmas break I try to get some of my long-standing repair projects finally finished, and this one's number finally came up.
Regards, Chris |
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