- © 2005-2020 Erwin Puts 0
Erwin has amazed me again and again because of his knowledge of many subjects. He only read books that took him further on his voyages of discovery. He was a curious person who only stopped when he knew all the ins and outs.
However, he was not a man of big words. Erwin did not need to be in the spotlight. He was a modest person and did not boast about his expertise. Unsolicited displaying his knowledge was not his style. So it took some years before I realized that I was sharing the room with a walking encyclopedia.
Erwin's work is special. It is meant for a small group of specialists, the Leica devotees. You can't help but have great respect for his tenacity in unfolding the history of Leica so that he could develop the story about Leica and thus share that knowledge with the outside world through his books, from England to Taiwan.
And then he was ill and then deathly ill. It's bizarre because "being sick" doesn't suit Erwin. Erwin always had something boyish to me because of his slightly slender appearance, exuberant hair, his smile, his usually roguish way of talking, and of course because of his passions. I still don't understand what happened. It happened so quickly - there was no transition.
Erwin, I was lucky to meet you and I embrace you in my mind.
Frank Oudt (brother-in-law)
The blog is still available here.