In Memoriam – Richard Meyer (1910 – 2007)
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Dipl.-Ing. Richard Meyer, Secretary General
during the first German presidency (1968–1971) and Honorary member
of FIG passed away February 20th, 2007. Since a couple of years
Richard Meyer lived in a seniors home in Wiesbaden and continued to
enjoy his life although his health – not his mental power – was
limited caused by old age. He noticed sympathetically the second
German led FIG period 2003 – 2006 and kept contact to the acting
German Council members personally, by phone and by letter. He always
said that his time as Secretary General of FIG was the best time in
his long life, that strongly flashed back during the last four
years. |
Born on June 11th in Wiesbaden Richard Meyer lived there until the
finished high school. He got his professional education at Bonn University
and a following two-years traineeship in civil service which he finalised
1936 as Vermessungsassessor. Immediately afterwards he started his
professional career at the land development and consolidation authority in
Frankenberg / Eder. After the Second World War Richard Meyer returned to the
land consolidation department and pushed forward the development of
surveying technology as a pioneer of that time. 1956 he proceeded to be the
leading surveyor of the land consolidation department, since 1973 he was its
vice president.
It was in the early fifties of the last century when he was appointed by
DVW to be the German delegate to commission 7. Richard Meyer held this
position for a long time. Speaking French and English fluently, he was later
the ideal person to collaborate with Prof. Draheim, the first German
FIG President during in the FIG council period 1968 – 1971. It was a big
challenge for him to be Secretary General of FIG at that time. Bearing mind
that there was no permanent office! With the help of two secretaries and
generously having got three years off with full salaries he put all his time
and energy into FIG. When in 1971 the first FIG congress in Germany was held
(at the same time the 100th anniversary of DVW was celebrated) it was the
biggest FIG event until this time. People from 55 nations met in Wiesbaden,
his home town and Richard Meyer and his friends in the council could be
proud on what they had achieved. Following the statutes at that time he was
FIG Vice President during the following US led Bureau period (1971 – 1974).
Since that time Richard Meyer attended all FIG congresses and a lot of
general assemblies until the Brighton Congress 1998. “I’m looking forward
to Munich” was his comment when he gave an interview to the German
surveyors journal ZfV regarding his 95th birthday in 2005.
Due to his weak health he could not attend the Munich Congress – a big
pity not only for him.
After the congress Richard Meyer immediately phoned and asked, how things
had happened. With his heart he was there as FIG has always been in his
heart since the previous years. No surprise that he got the Honorary
membership of FIG in 1977. This man has shown how sustainable happiness from
honorary office can be.
The most of his friends of the old days of FIG have passed away already
and cannot mourn for him. So it is up to us later born colleagues to pay
tribute to our honorary member and to treasure the memories of him.
Dr.-Ing. Andreas Drees
FIG Vice President 2003–2006
2 May 2007 |
