Passing of Gerben van Gelder (Stamp World History)

[JerryB]

Hi

I have sad news. Gerben van Gelder, the author of Stamp World History, passed away on December 31, 2016.

I worked with Gerben for about 5 months as a proof reader and editor.  We became very good internet friends.  He will be missed greatly.

His daughter posted the following on the site under Health News

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Dear all,

I regret to inform you that Gerben has unfortunately passed away on December 31st, 2016, after a long and hard battle against cancer.

I, his daughter, want to personally thank all of you for visiting his site, helping him and supporting him in each and every way. Gerben put his heart and soul into Stamp World History and truly enjoyed writing these profiles.

Stamp World History will remain open for at least another year, but no new content will be added.

If you would like to contact us (his family), you can reach us on the following e-mail address: (address on web site)

Gerben will be missed.

Faithfully,

His loving family.

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Rest In Peace Gerben.

Jerry B

[Admin Bear]

JerryB, Thank you for passing the information on to us here.

SWH, was a great person and a valued member for a long time here at Stamp Bears. He took a while to transition over from Stamp Bears' first website but his contributions to the site and the hobby in general should not be forgotten.

RIP my friend.

[MikeC99]

Sorry to hear of SWH's passing.

Admin Bear, please amend SWH's status from "Linking Member" to "Gone But Not Forgotten"

Mike

[khj]

This is truly saddening news. His dedication to his family and his Stamp World History website is well-known, and he will be missed by all.

Thank you for letting us know Jerry, as well as posting his daughter's note.

[JanetC]

RIP SWH. Your wonderful work will be there for generations to come.

[khj]

Feb 24, 2017 9:13:43 GMT -5 JanetC said:

Your wonderful work will be there for generations to come.

The contents of the Stamp World History website will be hosted by another website in the future, as his family will likely not continue to provide the website beyond the end of this year. We are grateful that they plan on keeping it up until an alternate host is found.

When the new host (and there have been offers) is decided, I will post the link in our Philatelic Internet Resources Board (assuming the webhost meets our non-commercial linking criteria).

[khj]

I have moved the recent posts starting from new member swhmeryemvangelder and afterwards to a new thread Stamp World History (plans on getting it back online).