Deaths
p. 74 · Read in the full issue
of Islands People
David Bamforo
In Port Moresby on January 26 following a brief illness. David Bamford was a tourist industry official who was one of the main organisers, as deputy director, of last year’s highly successful South Pacific Festival of Arts in Papua New Guinea. A national message of sympathy at his death was given by the PNG Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan.
Norman John Salter
In Port Moresby on January 27, following a stroke, aged 55.
Norman Salter was a Welsh born boxing promoter whose dream was to see a Papua New Guinean win a world boxing crown. He once clashed with the PNG government which threatened to deport him be cause his work permit did not cover training and managing boxers But the rift was healed and he went into partnership with the government preparing John Aba for the world feather weight title in 1979. The bid failed and was financially disas trous. Friends said the strain and the financial setbacks con tributed to Salter’s death.
Raymond Colardeau
Of a heart attack in Port-Vila, on January 7, aged 49. A member of a family well-known in the old New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), Mr Colardeau was the highly regarded secretary general of Port-Vila’s Munici pal Council.
John O’Grady
On January 14, in Sydney, aged 74. One of Australia’s best known writers of humorous fiction, John O’Grady lived in Western Samoa in the 19505, learned the language, and as sumed the role of chief story teller, a place that the people had once given Robert Louis Stevenson. While in Samoa, he finished writing his most famous work, They’re a Weird Mob, a humorous study of the
impact of Australian society on Italian immigrants.
R.W. (‘Torchy’)
Sellars
On January 11. at Castlemaine, Victoria, aged 74. Torchy’
Sellars was a marine engineer who spent 30 years in Fiji and South Pacific shipping. Part of his career was spent with the Fiji Naval Reserve Force in World War 11.
Percy Ray Hoare
On December 8, 1980, on Norfolk Island, aged 68. Ray went to Norfolk from his native New Zealand 32 years ago with his wife Merval (the island’s historian), and his lifetime on the island was spent as a radio technician with the Department of Civil Aviation, and later as the official in charge of radio communications.
Percy Jones
In Sydney on January 21. Percy Jones was the last of the European pioneer business identities in Tonga. He was a five-year-old when he first came to Tonga with his parents.
Leo Etscheit
At Ponape, Federated States of Micronesia, on October 12, 1980, aged 82. Belgian-born Leo Etscheit first came to Ponape in 1927, and proved a highly successful businessman.
He was formally thanked in 1979 by the FSM Congress for ‘his kindness and generous gifts to support the public good and the welfare of Micronesians in the State of Ponape’. In 1978 he donated SUSIOO 000 to be placed in a Leo Etscheit Foun dation, the interest from which is used to provide gifts and other amenities for patients at the Ponape Hospital on holidays and special occasions. In 1979 another $lOO 000 donation was made by him to assist the Ponape Agriculture and Trade School (PATS). In September 1980 a further $2OO 000 was given by him for a second Leo Etscheit Foundation the inter est from which will be used to celebrate once a year the end of World War II as far as it affected Ponape. September 11 has been proclaimed by the Ponape governor as the day to be celebrated every year as Ponape Liberation Day.