At the end of the Summer of 2003, tragic news reached us that co-founder and first president of EXARC, Tomas Johansson, died.
May EXARC live up to the visions of one of its founding fathers, to its first acting president.
We will remember Tomas on the 6th EXARC Conference, in October in Hungary.

My dear EXARC friends, dear colleagues and affiliates to EXARC,

It has never been this difficult to approach all of you and fulfil my task as secretary of EXARC. In this summer, this warm I have never experienced, there is news I should share with you which freezes my heart.

If you read this fast-fast between other business mails, please slow down and take some time.

On Monday, August 4th, I received a phone call from our fellow EXARC member, Arwo Pajusi. He had most tragic news. Last July, Tomas was on one of his many business trips through Russia. On Friday, August 1st, he planned to take a taxi with some other Swedes from his hotel in St Petersburg to the airport, to fly home. He did not open his hotel room door... Tomas must have died during that night.

Tomas leaves his daughters, their mother and his parents as the people closest around him. His funeral will take place in Vilhelmina, Lapland, on Thursday, August 28th. I whish to add so much, but that counts for more people. Tomas expressed on many occasions, with EXARC, we have something precious in our hands, full of promises. With Tomas in our circles, EXARC in its turn had a very precious man around, full of promises which he lived too short to fulfil. May EXARC live up to the visions of one of its founding fathers, to its first acting president.

We will remember Tomas on our next meeting, the 6th EXARC Conference, in October in Hungary. I hope many of you will join. I apologise for any mistakes or use of bad English.

Some of his close friends and colleagues wrote an In Memoriam, which we tried to translate. You will find this text below as attachment. This Newsletter is added to our website.

If you whish to react by e-mail, please send your message to me. I will collect them and deliver them in Sweden.

Thank you,
Roeland Paardekooper
Secretary EXARC