11 November. It is with great shock and sadness that the international conservation community has received the news of the death of Toby Raphael, a retired National Park Service senior conservator, on 4 November at his home in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, United States.

ICCROM is proud to have had the opportunity to work with Toby Raphael over several decades. In 1980, Toby arrived in Rome as a participant of the Scientific Principles of Conservation Course, where his vibrant professional curiosity and deeply ingrained international solidarity were very much at home. Over the years, Toby became a respected teacher and firm colleague at several ICCROM training activities both in Rome and beyond, especially in Latin America and Southeast Asia. In 2005, he worked closely with ICCROM staff during his six-month stay in Rome as a fellow.

The respect emerged most of all from his capacity to coach you not to blindly memorize what he was saying, but to find and nurture new and unexpected capacities and skills inside you to apply the principles at hand. And more often than not all this happened accompanied by delight and laughter.

Toby’s importance within the international conservation community went well beyond his role as a trusted voice of advice on technical aspects of conservation. He inspired and set an example for countless colleagues all over the world by his consistent professional vision and approach. Knowledge that is not shared becomes meaningless; solutions refined in isolation are born fragile. Communication, peoples, human beings were never far away when working with Toby. In fact, they were at the core of his professional identity. His way of addressing even the most technical of challenges, while at the same time seeming to hold in the palm of his hand the heartbeat of the culture that created the heritage was, luckily for the rest of us, both invigorating and contagious. Looking at material culture with Toby was to see the wondrous face of humankind.

Working with Toby was also more often than not accompanied by a glorious sense of urgency. A problem spotted was a problem tackled. It is more productive to spend time discussing how we can contribute towards producing a change, than making lists of suggestions for what anonymous others should do. His untimely death confronts us with the question of how to carry on his legacy. Facing the known challenges of today, and the yet unknown ones of tomorrow, with curiosity, courage and unfailing love of human beings might be a good start.

The Director General and the staff of ICCROM would like to extend their condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

updated on: 18 November, 2009