by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
president of the bi-lingual (German and English) Rotary Club of
Taksin-Pattaya is Dieter Precourt (pronounced ‘Praykoor’, coming from
the Hugenots many generations ago), and is a polished German gentleman.
Not just a polished German gentleman, but one who has caught snakes in
Arnhem Land in the north of Australia, climbed Kilimanjaro in Africa and
who has stayed with Queen Elizabeth II in a hotel in central Australia!
Dieter was born in Stuttgart, the home of Porsche,
Daimler Benz and German IBM. The last name there is important. When Dieter
finished school he was not really sure of his future direction, but
thought it would involve mathematics as this was a subject he enjoyed. His
other enjoyment came from exposure to the English language. “I would go
to the American library every week. I wanted to read and write better
English. I just felt I needed to know English better,” he said. What he
did not realize at the time was that he was setting himself up for a
lifetime of employment with those two choices.
When he emerged from university after two years of
studying mathematics, and with a reasonable command of English, he was
snapped up by the growing IBM Corporation in Germany. He fitted the
employee description IBM needed, and they sent him to America to learn
about their giant conglomerate and about their giant computers. In 1956
computers did not fit in brief cases, but were very large and the time on
them was shared between companies. “IBM with its big computers owned the
world,” said Dieter (until the Japanese slipped under their guard with
the PC!). Dieter’s job was to act as the coordinator between the
companies using the computers and IBM and its engineers.
This was not a boring dead-end job where he was to be
stuck in a dark office somewhere, but a job that was to take him around
the world. One of the first places was to Australia, a country that was
going to change from Sterling based currency with archaic divisions such
as 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound, to decimals
with 100 cents to the dollar, with all the inherent mathematical
advantages of decimalization. He was seconded there by IBM Germany as IBM
UK did not have enough experienced personnel, and with his English
language skills he could liaise with the front running Australian banks
and prepare them for the new era.
Over the following six years he made many trips to the
sunburned land down-under and began to collect art and native artifacts.
It was on one of these trips that he met the famed Aboriginal artist
Albert Namatjira, buying a bark painting from him which has appreciated in
value many times. He also went to Alice Springs, famous for its sand, and
not much else, other than the fact that the British Royal entourage was
there at the same time, and Dieter and HM Queen Elizabeth stayed in the
same hotel. It was the only hotel!
Australia certainly had an attraction for Dieter and he
spent much time exploring. One of his traveling companions (now the
director of the Sydney Zoo) talked him into helping him catch snakes in
Northern Territory, where they then milked them for venom to help produce
anti-venenes for some of Australia’s most deadly snakes.
However, collecting art was more to Dieter’s taste
than collecting snake venom, and he began to make forays into South East
Asia, collecting many items from the islands of Papua New Guinea.
On other trips to interesting places in the world
Dieter went to East Africa, where he climbed the fabled Kilimanjaro. He
also went big game hunting and flying with Hardy Kruger, the German film
actor and director, in Kruger’s safari park (best remembered for the
film Hatari, which Dieter told me means ‘dangerous’ in the native
language Swahili).
Being on his own meant that Dieter was free to travel
at a moment’s notice, and IBM needed his talents in the English-speaking
world. He and IBM became synonymous for his entire working life, even
though he did look at changing employer a few times, “But IBM’s salary
was best!” His lifestyle was also frugal, other than his art collecting,
so he was able to get by on travel expenses alone. For the avid collector,
a Utopian situation.
In the early days, however, even traveling itself was
exciting. Three days from Germany to Australia by plane meant that there
were many touchdowns and stopovers. One of those was Thailand in 1964.
Another was Vietnam in 1965 where he was almost blown up in an explosion
in a floating restaurant, prompting him to say, “Why am I in such a
dangerous place? I am not a war reporter! I like life too much.” He left
immediately.
With his eventual retirement, it was time to settle in
one place and Dieter chose Phuket. He had friends there, including some
IBM people, and he enjoyed the more casual lifestyle of Asia and the
tropical atmosphere.
Phuket was not his dream, however, and he decided to
try Pattaya and has settled in well here, becoming involved with Rotary
and is now the president of his club. There are other reasons to enjoy the
Pattaya living. “This is a gourmet paradise. In Europe this would cost
at least three or four times more than here.” When not being the
gourmand or involved in Rotary work, he plays chess and bridge and enjoys
music.
He comes across at all times as a ‘gentleman’ who
will stand for ladies, open doors for the fair sex and gives respect, not
only to the elders, but to people of all creeds and nationalities. He
gladly acknowledges his debt to his parents. “All that I have came from
my parents and the education they gave me.” A most refreshing connection
with times now sadly going out of fashion.
It was indeed pleasant to meet a real gentleman in Pattaya.
