In Memoriam - BPC 2012

We honor below those BPC 2005 attendees and supporters who were not able to be with us at BPC 2012 in Angwin, CA.

Maurice Allward:

Maurice Allward, a long-time PISG member and a very active founding member of PISG-UK, died on December 30, 2010 at the age of 87. Maurice will be remembered for the many articles he contributed to The Pitcairn Log and to The UK Log over the years, for the annual celebrations of Bounty Day at the home he shared with his wife, Joy, in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and for the fact that he contributed to the Pitcairn Islanders the profit from his book, Pitcairn Island: Refuge of the Bounty Mutineers, published in 2000. In 2011 Joy Allward, Maurice's widow, contributed his extensive Bounty-Pitcairn collection to the Pitcairn Islands Study Center. Maurice, the author of over 70 books, was a highly-skilled model maker and Bounty-Saga enthusiast. Several of his models of various aspects of the sea saga and Pitcairn scenes may be found today in the Pitcairn Island Museum. Maurice maintained a prolific, decades-long correspondence with many Pitcairn Islanders and was an unfailing supporter of the island's need financially. Maurice Allward was a speaker at Bounty-Pitcairn Conference 2005. Additional information about Maurice Allward may be found in the 13 MB PDF document here.

H. L. "Butch" Kerr:

Photo by Wanda LeBlanc-Cochee

H. L. "Butch" Kerr, a long-time PISG member and student of the Bounty Saga, posted the following to the FRIENDSofPITCAIRN Yahoo! Group following the 2003 death of American diver, explorer and National Geographic photographer Luis Marden:

I believe we were all blessed by the presence of Luis Marden in our lives. Mr. Marden was a gentleman and a gentle man. As a much younger man, I had been introduced to the Bounty Saga and had read his National Geographic Magazine articles. He had helped entice me to the wonderful Saga. So, when I was living in Washington, DC, I took the opportunity to write to him and invite him to lunch. He bought, at the National Geographic headquarters building in DC! What a delight for me. The lunch space was/is spectacular, overlooking the U. S. Capitol area. We talked of his previous adventures, including being the third mate on the Bounty when it sailed to Tahiti to film the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty film. I have said before that I experienced covetousness as his sleeves were pronounced with some nails of the original Bounty in his cuff links. (He kept them! And now I have mine). Mr. Marden was a wonderful host ... and he instilled in me an even deeper love for the Pitcairn people and the Bounty Saga ... I never met him again, but my love for him and the Pitcairn people is also still here ... Butch Kerr, Norfolk, VA

In 1989 Butch completed his landmark Bibliography of the H. M. S. Bounty, Wm. Bligh and Pitcairn Island, which for many years was widely available on Paul Lareau's renowned website. Butch's ever-useful Bounty Saga Chronology may still be found online at http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/studycenter/chronology.shtml. (Former PISC curator Gary Shearer's state-of-the-art Bounty Saga Articles Bibliography, which superceded Butch's original effort, is also available on the Pitcairn Islands Study Center web site at http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/studycenter/pitcairnbib.pdf.) A speaker at Bounty-Pitcairn Conference 2005, Butch died on December 4, 2011 at the age of 71. Additional information about Butch Kerr may be found here.

Erhard Ernst Küchau:

Photo by B. Kuchau

Born in Steinberg, Germany, Erhard Ernst Küchau trained in shipbuilding and then traveled the world as a German merchant seaman. From 1988, when he moved to Florida to marry Barbara McGrew Wood, he was employed by International Ship Repair in Tampa until his 2001 retirement. In that year Erhard and Barbara moved to what, for him, seemed to be a paradise -- a home set on over five acres of land with a large koi-stocked pond. Erhard purchased a riding lawn mower and a golf cart; and, with the addition of Hopkins, a rescued West Highlands White Terrier, and the German soccer channel on satellite TV, he settled into retirement with joy. Erhard, who was responsible for much of the behind-the-scenes work before, during and after Bounty-Pitcairn Conference 2005 in St. Petersburg, Florida, passed away in Live Oak, Florida on June 13, 2011 at the age of 73.

Don A. Roth:

Don A. Roth, a veteran Seventh-day Adventist communicator and a generous-hearted friend of Pitcairn Island, for many years supplied Pitcairn with thousands of pages of masthead-printed paper on which the island newspaper, Pitcairn Miscellany, was printed. A highlight of Don’s “Pitcairn life” was his arranging speaking tours for and accompanying Pitcairn Magistrate Parkin Christian throughout the United States in the 1950s. Shortly before his passing, Don donated his large collection of Bounty-Pitcairn materials to the Pitcairn Islands Study Center. A speaker at Bounty-Pitcairn Conference 2005, Don remained a solid, helpful friend of the Pitcairn people until his death on July 26, 2011, at age 84 in Southern California. Additional information about Don Roth may be found here.