Honorary Fellowship for Rolf Böhme

Rolf Böhme

Rolf Böhme was born in Leipzig on 17 January 1917. After a classical education he studied first at the Technical University at Dresden and after the interruption of military service in World War II he went to the Technical University in Hannover, where he graduated as Dipl.Ing. in 1948. For a few years he was employed with the private Land Survey Office (later renamed Land- und Seevermessung Oro-Hydrographie) in Frankfurt am Main and then settled down at the Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie in 1956, where he stayed until his retirement in 1982. From 1972 Böhme was in charge of practical cartography in IfAG with the title of Scientific Director, to be promoted in 1979 to Head of the whole Cartography Division. His main tasks included the permanent revision of small scale topographic map series (1:200 000, 1:500 000 and the IMW) and the compilation of a new map series 1:500 000 in collaboration with IGN, France.

Over the years he became increasingly involved in geographical names, and he gained considerable experience and expertise in automated name processing. Since 1977 he is a member of the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) and from 1977–1982 he was chairman of its Working Group on Automated Data Processing. He represented FRG at the UN Conferences in Athens (1977) and Geneva (1982). Further he represented UN at the first Training Course in Toponymy in Cisarua (Indonesia) organised by Professor Ormeling Sr. in 1982.

Rolf Böhme – delighted recipient of the Fellowship Award.

From 1960–1972 he was chairman of the Hessen subdivision of the German Cartographic Society and from 1975–1979 he was its Secretary. Further, for a few years he was a member of the editorial board of the bimonthly periodical Kartographische Nachrichten. Numerous articles, reports and reviews by his hand appeared in German and international periodicals, including the International Yearbook of Cartography. Among his publications the Gazetteer of the Federal Republic of Germany, completed in accordance with UN recommendations, deserves special mention. Now retired, he is currently concentrating on an Inventory of World Topographic Mapping, a large undertaking intended to be completed and published in the near future.

His involvement in ICA dates from the First Conference in Frankfurt am Main in 1962, the organisation of which was his responsibility. He was elected Vice-President of the Association in 1976 by the Fifth General Assembly in Moscow, 1976 and re-elected in Tokyo for another term. From 1976–1984 he was adviser of the ICA Publications Committee. He represented ICA at various conferences as session chairman or as speaker including the UN Regional Cartographic Conferences for Africa. As Vice-President in Joint Board meetings with FIG and ISPRS, he actively contributed on behalf of ICA to the formation of the International Union of Surveys and Mapping.

As a token of appreciation of his work he was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Association in Perth in August 1984. In presenting the distinction President Ormeling addressed him as follows:

“One of the shortcomings of the Statutes of ICA is undoubtedly the fact that the duties of Vice-Presidents are only vaguely defined. According to Article 12, Vice-Presidents have to assist and stand-in for the President in his different tasks. For most of them, living far away from the President, this remains a dead letter.
When presidential tasks accumulate, however, it can become dangerous for those Vice-Presidents who live within a day’s journey of the Presidency. This misfortune befell Rolf Böhme, near Frankfurt am Main, FRG, elected Vice-President in 1976 in Moscow and re-elected in Tokyo 4 years later. He carried it bravely.
As an exponent of German cartography, Böhme was of great importance to ICA. For more than 15 years he worked as a cartographic staff member under Professor Erwin Gigas, founder member and first Secretary-Treasurer of ICA, from whom he may have acquired the taste for international contacts. Böhme’s origin as geodetic engineer from Hannover and his wide experience and interest – from automation up to geographical names, ensured him good relations with neighbour sciences in surveying and mapping. His command of languages, including Russian and his savoir-vivre enabled him to tread in the footsteps of master Gigas and to become an advocate of international cooperation. His worldwide network of personal relations made him a valuable partner in the ICA management team. In his capacity as Vice-President, he represented the ICA in numerous meetings and conferences hosted respectively by FIG, ISPRS, DGfK or UN, at venues varying from Abidjan to Sofia, from Jakarta to Washington. Though often snowed under by ICA mail, particularly during the long sickness of the President in 1982, he was always ready to assist in new tasks. He was an appreciated member of several committees and working groups among which was the ICA Publications Committee in which he served as advisor for 10 years. Most important was his contribution as an intermediary with the German speaking cartographic community, a trendsetter in European, if not world cartography, from which various interesting ideas and initiatives originated.
As a token of appreciation, the Executive Committee upon recommendation of the Committee for the Selection of Award Recipients, has decided to confer the Honorary Fellowship of the Association to Rolf Böhme and I am honoured to present him the accompanying document which once more reflects our gratitude”.

Category: General News

Tag: awards, Germany, ICA Honorary Fellowship

Honorary Fellowship for Harold Fullard

Harold Fullard and Roger Anson, Outgoing and Incoming Chairman of the Publications Committee in City dress.

Born in a distant part of Europe, he was naturally surrounded by family interest in foreign lands and geography, and, as it happened prophetically, had a Philip’s globe for a ninth birthday present. At university he read Geography, Geology and Anthropology with a view to entering the Colonial Service but when entry to that Service was restricted, he turned to research in Anthropology, and then, in 1938, to Cartography when the firm of George Philip & Son in London required a Geographical Assistant to their Cartographic Editor.

The war years inevitably interrupted this activity. He served in the Royal Artillery in 1940, in the Royal Engineers (Field) in 1941–42 and in the Royal Engineers (Survey) 1942–1946. He was engaged in the mapping of Normandy from November 1942 to March 1944 using air photographs, in mapping and survey in Normandy, Belgium and Holland in 1944–45 and in air survey revision of German maps 1944–45. He was posted to India, then Ceylon and Singapore, for mapping of parts of S.E. Asia in 1945–46. He considers that he was indeed fortunate to have been in the R.E. Survey and to have worked, both during the war and since, with such skilled professional and practical men.

He returned to Philip in 1946 as Assistant Cartographic Editor, was made Cartographic Editor in 1955, and Director and Cartographic Editor in 1965 of both the publishing and printing companies of the Group. In 1969, he helped to establish Mitchell Beazley Ltd as a new and innovative publishing house in London, and, in 1970, to found and become a director of George Philip O’Neil Pty. in Melbourne. He retired officially in January 1980 and has continued to serve the firm as a consultant cartographer.

In the course of some forty years he edited for the firm, and through them for several other publishers throughout the world, educational atlases and maps, globes and relief models at all levels from primary to university. He also edited thematic atlases and maps of many kinds: geological, vegetation, climate, economic, historical, transport and navigational, and the Geographical Digest annually from its start in 1963 to 1980.

The Royal Geographical Society presented him with the Murchison Award in 1976 for contributions to educational cartography.

Throughout his busy career, he still made time for contributions to cartography in general. He was a founder member of the British Cartographic Society, was Treasurer and member of Council from 1963–1968, Vice-President in 1969, President in 1970, and was made Honorary Member of the Society in 1981. He attended the first general assembly of the ICA in Paris in 1962, lectured at the first technical meeting of the ICA in Frankfurt in 1967 and has participated in every biennial meeting since then. He has been a member of the Publications Committee of the ICA since its inception in 1974, and its chairman since 1976.

The ICA presented Harold Fullard with the Honorary Fellowship for his valuable contribution over the years, particulary in the capacity of chairman of the Publications Committee, during the Seventh General Assembly in Perth, Australia, 1984. On this occasion he was addressed by President Ormeling in the following way:

“There is one in our midst whose merits and achievements deserve special attention. When we established the Publications Committee in the early Seventies we had to find a capable chairman with experience in mapping and publishing who was also willing to undertake ICA duties. We found one in Britain in the person of Harold Fullard. By that time Fullard had been in mapping and publishing since 1938. As a young geographer he entered into the service of publishers Philip and Son, London, where he specialised in atlas cartography and climbed the ladder from geographical assistant to Director and Cartographic Editor in Chief. Since 1938, he prepared, edited and supervised the production of over 130 atlases, covering many countries and most of them excelling in clarity and legibility, used by millions of people in schools, libraries and offices all over the world. In doing so he became a man of international repute, whether he liked it or not. It is not ICA’s custom to advertise, not even to mention, names of commercial publishers but the combination of Philip-Fullard is so unusual that an exception to this rule seems to be justified.
We caught Fullard on the summit of his career, a happy state of affairs which continued to be effective for a long time. He was familiar with ICA as a participant of what is called in ICA history, the Chicago conference in 1958. He attended the birth of ICA and with his experience in international cartography he further served it in an excellent way. I even venture to say that if the experiment of the Publications Committee was successful, it was due to his effort. He moulded it into shape, drafted and revised its guidelines, chaired its meetings in his modest but efficient way, and reported to Executive Committee meetings and General Assemblies. Moreover he corresponded with authors with diverging backgrounds and experience in cartography; not always easy, as became obvious during the preparation of the publication Basic Cartography for Technicians and Students (1984), which, without Fullard’s assistance would not have appeared.
As a token of gratitude and respect, the Executive Committee upon recommendation of the Committee for the Selection of Award Recipients, has decided to confer the Honorary Fellowship of the Association to Harold Fullard and I am honoured to present him with the accompanying diploma which once more reflects our appreciation.
Speaking of evolution Fullard once said that specialisation leads to increasing lack of adaptability to changing circumstances and those unsuitable forms are doomed to be succeeded by simpler and more adaptable ones. “A bony fish” he said “can never evolve into any other form than bonier fishes”. The statement does not apply to the distinguished Fullard himself, as during his specialisation or perhaps better “bonification”, he never lost his range of vision and mental attitude which characterises the generalist. It was this combination that made him irreplaceable!”

Further reading: Obituary for Harold Fullard

Category: General News

Tag: awards, ICA Honorary Fellowship, United Kingdom

Honorary Fellowship for Emil Meynen

Emil Meynen

Emil Meynen, born in Cologne on 22 October 1902, studied at the universities of Cologne, Leipzig, Innsbruck and Berlin and obtained his doctor’s degree in geography at Cologne in 1926. After having been assistant to Professor Albrecht Penck in Berlin, he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship for three years of study in the United States (1929–1932). These were years in which he gained great experience. After his habilitation in Cologne (1935) he went to the university of Berlin as a lecturer, where in 1942 he was appointed Assistant Professor in geography. In 1937 he became scientific secretary of the Zentralkommission für wissenschaftliche Länderkunde Deutschlands (Central Committee for Regional Studies of Germany) and at the same time editor of its Forschungen zur deutschen Landeskunde (Regional research studies of Germany). He held this post until 1970, editing the amazing total of 186 volumes. In 1942 Emil Meynen was appointed Head of the newly founded Abteilung für Landeskunde im Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme (Department of Regional Geography of the Land Survey Office) in Berlin, a position which he retained without interruption after 1945 at various temporary locations. The Department continued under his guidance until it was taken over by the Government of the new FRG and established in Bonn-Bad Godesberg (1953) under the name Institut für Landeskunde (Institute of Regional Geography), later renamed Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumordnung (Federal Research Institute for Geography and Regional Planning). He retired in 1969 as Director of this Institute.

In 1942 Meynen founded and edited the Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde (Bulletin of Regional Studies of Germany) containing papers and documentation on geographic literature and since 1944 also on topographic and thematic maps. Another serial publication was the Bibliotheca Cartographica (1959–1972), an international bibliography of cartographic literature started by the Institut für Landeskunde in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie (German Society for Cartography).

Among Meynen’s tasks was the preparation of thematic maps (for instance of electric power lines, gas supply and water distribution at scales 1:300 000) for government administration and planning.

In cooperation with the Statistisches Bundesamt (Federal Office of Statistics) the Institut für Landeskunde published in 1970 a National Atlas entitled Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Karten (The Federal Republic of Germany in Maps) based upon census results and mainly containing maps at the scale 1:1 Million. It is worth remembering that Meynen introduced thematic computer mapping into his Institute as early as the 1960’s.

In 1949 Meynen founded the biennial Geographisches Taschenbuch (Geographical Pocketbook) and in 1966 the Orbis Geographicus (Geographical World Dictionary), publications of great value for geographiers and all who have a professional interest in geography.

From 1952–54 Meynen was chairman of the Committee on Geographical Names of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie, while from 1954–1977 he was chairman of the Ständiger Ausschuss für Geographische Namen (German Permanent Committee on Geographical Names). For many years (1967–1984) he was a member of the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names. His Bibliography of Gazetteers and Glossaries 1947–1979 is considered a standard work.

In 1962 on the occasion of the UN Conference on the IMW 1:1 000 000 in Bonn, Meynen prepared a bibliography of literature on this map series and at the end of the conference he surprised participants with a printed copy of the IMW legend in colour, produced overnight, which the meeting had just agreed upon. With regard to ICA, Professor Meynen attended the First General Assembly in Paris in 1962 as member of the FRG delegation. He participated in all ICA conferences until 1982 and prepared the ICA Bibliography 1956–1972, one of the first ICA publications. On the proposal of Past-President Imhof he was elected chairman of the ICA Commission on Definition, Classification and Standardisation of Cartographic Terms in 1964, which resulted in 1973 in the publication of the Multilingual Dictionary of Technical Terms in Cartography, with 1400 terms and definitions, the former in fourteen, the latter in five languages. Soon after its appearance Meynen started working with his commission on a second, even more extensive edition, the manuscript of which was completed in the early 1980’s. For his extremely valuable contribution to cartography and to the Association in particular, President Ormeling presented him with the Honorary Fellowship during a special session of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kartographie in Kiel in 1983.

For obvious reasons it was not his only distinction, in 1955 he became Honorary Professor of the University of Cologne. He was honoured with the Robert Gradmann Medal in 1967, the Alexander von Humboldt Medal in gold (1969) and the Carl Ritter Medal in gold (1978). He was elected Honorary Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Kartographie (1969). The Central Committee on Regional Studies on Germany elected him as their Honorary President (1986) and the IGU Working Group on the History of Geographical Thought made him its Honorary Member. His has been a career to be proud of.

Category: General News

Tag: Austria, awards, Germany, ICA Honorary Fellowship

Honorary Fellowship for Denys E. O. Thackwell

Denys E. O. Thackwell

Brigadier Denys E. O. Thackwell was born in Poona, India, on the 18 March 1909. His father was Brigadier O. M. R. Thackwell R. E. who had spent the major part of his Service life in India. He went to Rosall School in Lancashire, UK, and completed his academic education at Corpus Christi, Cambridge. On 31 January 1929 his military career began when he was granted a regular army commission as 2nd Lt. Royal Engineers at Chatham.

In World War II he served firstly in Survey of India and then in various military roles and latterly as Assistant Director Survey in G.H.Q., India, in the 4th Army and in the 12th SEAC.

In 1946 he returned to civil employment in Survey of India. From 1948 to 1963 he was in charge of divisions of the Ordnance Survey UK and in 1959 was promoted Brigadier and appointed Director Map Production OS, Gazetted C.B.E. in January 1963 and retired in June 1963.

In addition to his distinguished service to military and civilian survey and mapping, he served the cartographic community in many ways such as by his work on the Royal Society Cartography Committee, on the UK committee devising a new specification for the 1:1 Million Map of the World (1962), on the Executive Committee of the newly formed ICA and as the founded President of the British Cartographic Society in September 1963 and on to 1966. On 6 September 1983 at the Royal Society in London, the President of the ICA, Professor F.J. Ormeling, presented him with the Honorary Fellowship of the Association and the following is an extract from his address:

“Brigadier Thackwell was elected President of the Association by the Second General Assembly in Edinburgh in 1964 when the Association was five years old. He succeeded Professor Imhof, first President and one of the founder members of the ICA. His administration was soon characterised by a series of actions and decisions which strenghtened the Association and resulted in a healthy growth of prestige. To minimise confusion in allied disciplines such as geodesy, photogrammetry, graphic arts, geography as to aims and objectives of the Association, Thackwell started to stake out the area of interest, the sphere of influence of cartography. He made it clear that cartography had a specific problem area, distinct from, but closely related to surveying and photogrammetry. He introduced the Technical Meetings between the 4-yearly conferences, the first of which was held in Amsterdam in 1967. Under Thackwell’s administration the first three commissions (Education, Terminology and Automation) started their work. Together with de Brommer (France), Chairman of the first mentioned commission, he initiated a series of successful UNESCO conferences on Education in Cartography in Paris. Further it was Thackwell who managed to bring the extravagant ambitions of the Commission on Terminology to workable dimensions, thus laying the foundation of the Multilingual Dictionary of Technical Terms. Together with Professor Boesch, Secretary General of the IGU, he strengthened the relationships with the geographers by introducing joint sessions on subjects of common interest during overlapping conferences.
The years of Thackwell’s Presidency in many respects were of a decisive nature for the Association. His cool leadership and clear judgement inspired confidence, attracted new member countries and brought outlying members into active collaboration. As a token of gratitude and respect the Executive Committee upon recommendation of the Committee for the Selection of Award Recipients decided to confer the Honorary Fellowship on Brigadier Thackwell. I am honoured to announce this decision.”

Category: General News

Tag: awards, ICA Honorary Fellowship, India, United Kingdom