It is with great sadness that I report that we have lost another old time PH. He was a mentor and a friend. Tony had a bowel operation last year, had some complications but it seemed to settle down and life returned to normal. He was suddenly admitted to hospital on Monday last, with what would appear to be a recurrence, and passed away Wednesday.
Condolences to his wife and daughters and families.
RIP old buddy.

Sorry to hear that. Condolences to his family and to those of you who were good friends with Tony.

Helluva sorry to hear the bad news...... Tony was an absolute gentleman.

Our condolences to all involved.

Condolences to the family, Tony was a mentor on one of my first hunts as an apprentice in 1991 in Chewore.
Gone but not forgotten.

truly sad news
he was a mentor and friend

that he will be missed is at best an understatement

Very sad to hear this.

Condolences to all the family.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Helluva sorry to hear the bad news...... Tony was an absolute gentleman.

Our condolences to all involved.

+1

Bill Quimby

+2

Perhaps not known by all:
Tony played a extremely important role in conservation in Natal and in my humble opinion contributed of the most important data in support of sustainable utilization hunting !

Together with Spud Ludbrook he was integral in winning over the authorities to allow bow hunting in Natal and ultimately the whole RSA.

With Sound research and hard proof they got right what many of us before tried and failed.

Bowhunting was essentially outlawed in all the Provinces and a study comparing head to head the lethality between the arrow vs the bullet Tony and Spud got bowhunting legalized.

The second and more important contribution came in the form of a economic impact study of hunting vs tourism in a controlled park. He could and did show that regulated sport hunting had a very small ecological impact footprint vs tourism with similar economic benefit.
Essentially the per dollar economic benefit hunting had by far the smallest ecological footprint.

He will be missed !

It is going to take some time to get used to the idea that Tony is no longer with us.

He was a gentleman, a scholar, teacher, conservationist, Father, Grandfather, back to being a Father figure. All of which he did with class, dignity and flair. His sense of humour was world class and his love for nature second to none.
To try and quantify the hole left by this man is almost impossible.

As Alf points out we all owe Tony a debt of gratitude. He worked tirelessly through the red tape to show the value of hunting to conservation and got it legalized.

He told the story one night of how he did some of his research for the bow hunting Sustainability research by basically living in a tree for a few months over a bait.
The man knew no bounds.
Even all these years later, telling the stories of his youth Tony's eyes would sparkly and he'd get into the memory. By the time he was finished you were right there beside him in that tree. Dead legs, mosquito bites and all.
He told of how an old Black Rhino nearly got him one day in the thick stuff in Mkuze. A well placed shot from an old .303 saving the day.

My last hunt with Tony was a few months back together with an old client of his. This type of client was the hallmark of Tonys operation, hunters who returned year after year to enjoy his company. Many of them simply became his friends and loved spending time with him.
This particular hunter had introduced his daughter to hunting on this trip and she was doing a fine job knocking the birds out the air.

Just as the sun was setting that evening the moon was rising. It got slightly darker and then almost miraculously the whole world lit back up in a beautiful orange glow.
The geese kept coming in, low, 3 feet above our heads low.
It was a sight to behold, and man but did we connect. Because the were so low we would only see them when they were barely 10 feet away and then it was fast shooting of the kind you always dreamed of.

As it got darker we stopped shooting and just enjoyed the spectacle. All of us with hearts pumping and the fire in our eyes. We had witnessed something special that day.

Later that evening we sipped a fine wine Tony had brought up from the cape and ate to our hearts content.

Few of you will know of Tonys recent work on Rhino. Together with Zig Macintosh and Dr Ian Player they were busy producing an ongoing set of video evidence to support the legalisation of the trade in Rhino horn. Dr Player had been an influential person in Tonys life and it was thanks to Tonys hard work that the last recordings of Dr Player were made just weeks before he sadly passed away.
Had Tony know how imminent his own passing was I am sure he would have left a list of jobs form someone to complete in his absence to ensure the project would succeed.

The bit of Tony I was priveldged to have know, was in short, something I aspire to now. He gave me more to think about and more motivation to be great than anyone before him.
He lived a full, exciting and good life.

His Zest for life and attitude to all he took on was something to behold.

While he as a man passed between us, making his way through life, the shadow that followed him was that of a mountain.

Go in peace Tony, and know that I will be looking for you on the other side.
Happy hunting.