Sad news: It is with great regret that we report the death on February 5, 2010 of Samir Amin Fikry (ESC 305), for at least two decades the country's foremost collector, after a motor accident in Cairo from which he never recovered consciousness.
Samir, an architect and Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society of London who was 77, was a well-known international exhibitor over many years, specialising in the rare and the unique, and became one of only six collectors in the world to win three Grand Prix - in India 1989, New Zealand 1990 and Valencia 2004 - as well as a host of Large Gold medals and was 12 times shown in international Courts of Honour. His legacy follows in the great tradition of such top philatelists as Ibrahim Chaftar Bey and Emile Antonini. Samir's two early collections - the Nile Collection of traditional philately and the Sphinx Collection of postal history - eventually gave way to a new interest, the Postal Services in the Suez Canal area, which won for him yet another Large Gold in Germany last year. His family report that they will allow this collection to be shown as planned in the Court d'Honneur in Lisbon between October 1 and 10.
As well as a great collector, Samir was a great organiser, as proven by the Cairo 1991 international exhibition - which gave many ESC members their first glance of Egypt and was superbly arranged by Samir and his committee - and by his publications, including Postal History of Egypt to 1900 and FIP Guide to Exhibiting and Judging Traditional and Postal History. And he was a great friend and ally to all those he met, always ready to help with advice and guidance. The Circle - and his very much wider circle of friends in philately - will miss him greatly.
For those who wish to see his collections, he had recently launched a website in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Roda in Cairo:
www.philatelyinegypt.com
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