Quote from Steve on July 13, 2020, 5:05 pm

A Colossus of the South African Collectors' Society

It is with sadness that we report the death of Otto Peetoom on Saturday, 11th July, 2020.

A ship's officer and Captain for much of his working life, Otto was a large man and a larger than life character, a forthright, no-nonsense man who suffered fools badly. He did have his occasional differences with SACS members but these were quickly forgotten. Beneath his brusque exterior, he had a lively sense of humour.

Otto was born to Dutch parents and spoke Dutch at home. He was educated in Afrikaans at Helpmekaar Boys High School in Johannesburg, matriculating in 1963. In order to improve his English, his third language, he developed the habit of checking the spelling and meaning of words in the Oxford English dictionary. It was a habit he never gave up, one that ultimately gave him the above-average understanding of English which stood him in such good stead as a philatelic editor and writer.

In 1964, as Sea Cadet No. 2248 he joined the General Botha Nautical College in Gordon's Bay. From 1965 - 1967, he was a Safmarine cadet aboard the SA van der Stel and a deck officer in 1968 when it controversially bought Buccaneer aircraft from Hull to South Africa. In 1971, he joined the British Merchant Navy and served on the Atlantic Conveyor which would later be sunk in the Falklands War in 1982. He left her in Newcastle in 1973 and enrolled for his Masters Certificate at Liverpool Polytechnic which he passed in SA in 1974.

As a Captain, Otto worked in the Borneo Straits, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, The Bahamas, the USA and Ghana. He claimed that as a merchant officer he was known to throw drunken sailors out of public houses through the windows! He must have mellowed with age. Despite our personal differences with Otto, no SACS members and or other philatelists who stayed up into the early hours drinking with him was ever treated quite so rudely. By 1978, always too far from home and family, he was looking for a new challenge.

At his wife's suggestion, he opened a stamp shop in Ormskirk, West Lancashire, in 1979. Saying he would try it for 12 months to see how it went, he closed it four years later in order to start a South and Central African mail order business. He and his new wife Gillian became familiar faces at stamp fairs throughout Britain. As a dealer Otto is not remembered for giving discounts. Once, when asked what his best price was, he added £50 to the marked price. "But that's more than you have here," said the customer. "Yes," confirmed Otto. "You asked for MY best price". On another occasion, when asked "what sort of prices are we looking at?", he replied "the ones on the price tags".

In 1993 Otto started and edited The Rhodesian Philatelist. He later co-founded Southern Africa Philately and was the editor of The Runner Post, the journal of the Bechuanaland and Botswana Society. He was a disciplined and clear thinking editor, producing in the region of 200 pages of philatelic writing every year as well as promoting stamp collecting on various websites. As he was most productive in the mornings, he was usually up at 5am. On Conference weekends he was invariably first in for breakfast despite having entertained the SACS members in the bar until the early hours.

In 2009 Otto paid for HTML programming lessons which he received over the phone. In 2015 he launched a website to promote Southern Africa Philately and also a magazine of the same name which he published three times per year. Otto's website also hosted the South African Collectors Society plus details and write-ups of the annual Southern Africa Philatelic Conference. By 2019 Otto was proudly proclaiming it as the "Most Active Website for SA Philately on the Internet". Between January 2014 and July 2020 his website had over 30,000 visits.

In 2016, Otto very deservedly and proudly received the Manfred Weinstein Medallion "for his huge role in the development of the current interest in Southern African Philately". The prestigious Manfred Weinstein Medallion is "Awarded for Excellence in Philately Research and the sharing of Knowledge". Otto was a man of considerable talent and intellect and unbelievable energy. At the November Conferences, he could be relied upon to produce professionally crafted PowerPoint displays that were interesting and somewhat removed from the well trodden paths of conventional philately. His displays on SWA artwork for new stamp designs and on the Victoria Waterfall, incorporating stunning Rhodesian rarities, were especially memorable.

He could be abrasive, difficult and opinionated. At times, many of us failed to see eye-to-eye with him but, in the final analysis, he was a man who got things done, very largely by himself, working unbelievably hard for the hobby we all love. Otto's support for SACS and The Springbok were constant and of a high standard and his creation of the Society website quite remarkable. The Society, The Springbok and the Conferences will not be the same without him. We lament the passing of his brooding presence, knowing it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to replace him with someone as knowledgeable, hard-working and as dedicated to the Society.

True to form, Otto did not talk about his illness. It was his problem and no-one else's. That was the end of it. He was, however, always willing to talk about Southern African Philately. Often it began, "your subscription is due!"