Is Stamp World History Going Away?

Hi

I was working with Gerben on Stamp World History as a proof reader. I also did some research for him, especially the Latin countries.

We were in daily contact, e-mail and voice messenger, for almost a year. Gerben once told me that the fees for the web site were paid for one or two years.

Last time I talked to Gerben he was critically ill. Unfortunately, I believe that Gerben has passed away.I cannot say definitely, but I am certain that is the case. His children were supposed to notify me if anything went wrong, but, they have not. Last I talked to him the doctors only gave him a month or two, maybe less. He will be sorely missed. We had many enjoyable chats and laughs. I miss the daily talks. For someone with English as a second language, he did one hell of a job.

As with a lot of web sites it seems the good ones get lost (Mette Hiendorf and now Gerben van Gelder).

Rest In Peace Gerben.

Jerry B

P.S. I have had no problem with accessing the site.

Truly sad news, thoughts and prayers for his family and friends.
Don

Hi Rodney

Since I was downloading SWH pages for proof reading and editing, I can say that a lot of those pages were fairly large if the images were included. Gerben once told me the site size and if I remember correctly it would be at least 3 DVDs or more.

The best thing would be a dedicated server just for the philatelic World that would be viable for a long time, but, sadly, that is not to be.

Jerry B

Jerry,
I am willing to republish his site at no charge if someone can get permission and the files (any format, I can make it work). It would be a nice way to keep his memory alive and help hobbyists around the world.
Don

I don't know what to say. That is certainly terrible news to hear..

Thanks Jerry,
perhaps I should have said 1 Tb portable hard drive ($77)

I did a back up for 2,000,000 images the other month, that took 2 hrs.
I guess the point is where, and with whom do you leave your work?

I have willed mine to the WA Philatelic society.

Nice offer, Don.

Sad news. This is what I feared.

We have lost a great philatelic web site author.

When I was in the Netherlands last March, I was in phone contact with Gerben. We were going to meet each other in Den Hague (where my daughter is working), and he was planning to take a train from Ultricht. That morning he called, and said he was too sick at the moment to come.

He faced his illness bravely,(and He was realistic about it), but, through it all, he continued to add to his wonderful website.

Please visit the site- which is up and running at the moment, and admire his wonderful synthesis maps and the well researched historical information.

Can a site such as Stampsmarter mirror stampworldhistory?

This is sad. SWH have been like a lighthouse in the vast ocean of WW stamp history, both on his own site and in this community. Many have admired his work and used it as a solid point of reference. Always friendly and helpful. He will be missed. My condolences to his family and to those of you that had the privilege to get to know him.

Don - you will be doing stamp collectors a significant favor by keeping the light shining in the lighthouse left behind by SWH. Thank you, I hope you will succeed.

Yes, as long as permissions are given.
Don

It would be nice for us "juniors" of the stamworld to have the address of this site - Thanks and am also sorry for the loss...

I googled stampworldhistory. Also the OP gave the address in his first post and the name/address was mentioned several times in the thread.

http://www.stampworldhistory.com/

Thanks redwoodrandy !

Vale Gerben. He was good company... We both loved stamp entity listings and exchanged lots of data and ideas at time on how to 'split the geographic/geo-political/political world' in a way that that is consistent and makes sense.

-k-

Hi

I tried to contact his children with both e-mails I have. So far there has been no response.

I do know that there should be at least another 2 to 4 entries that he was working on.

All his work was done with WordPress and a bunch of WordPress plugins. As far as permissions, I am not sure what permissions would be needed. Other than JKBlue and Antonio Ra, most references that I know of were from public domain documents. He did list the resources he used (see resources on SWH).

In my opinion, his work is similar to a "school paper". You do a lot of research and list the sources used. One usually does not need permission(s) to use any resource information. Gerben's work is similar. As far as I know there is no plagerism. Just a thought.

For Gerben it was a "labor of love". Sadly, it is also an unfinished work. European countries, and possibly some Asian countries, will not be included.

He did have 2 sites. One was a "working/staging" site where the documents were written and edited; it probably contained some references also. The second site is the "published" site. How many documents and references were on his lap-top I do not know. If the work is transferred to another site it would be fantastic. It would be a shame to lose that work.

If transferred, and if someone decided to write the remaining countries, I will gladly help out as a proof reader/editor as I am very familiar with Gerben's writing style. Personally, I cannot write squat except technical documentation (typical engineer), but I do know English grammer - Maine schools stressed grammer not writing. In addition I have all the WORD macros to assist in editing.

Jerry B