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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 8
Tributes to
Ian Snelling
AN OAK AMONGST SAPLINGS!
I was honoured to be asked by my beloved
aunt and godmother, Annie, to pay
homage to a man I admired hugely. For
many of you who only knew Ian during his
10 years in Hillcrest you probably
remember him for his love of bridge,
books and of course footie.
There were in fact three key pillars to Ian’s
life. His advertising career which dovetailed
into his book collecting and dealing
and his abiding passion for the Gunners
and enjoying life in general. Inextricably
linking all three was his incredible
partnership with Annie and their support
and love for each other.
My earliest memories of Ian are glasses on,
book in hand, intensely reading or
completing a crossword. He loved to tickle
us with his beard. We found his attire of
old fashioned shorts and long socks a bit
amusing.
As I grew older he became my wise
mentor who patiently shared his
remarkable mind through stories which
made the complex simple. I shared an
abiding love of books with him and for a
short while endeavoured to source modern
firsts to sell to him. My husband, Alex and
I would wait with baited breath to see
what he would make of our latest haul and
how much we would be able to add to our
overseas fund. He was known to drive a
hard bargain though I strongly suspect he
paid well over the odds for many of the
modern firsts we presented him with.
Ian was an amazing storyteller and it
seems fitting to celebrate his life by sharing
tributes from those who knew him during
his years in advertising and book dealing.
Combined the help encapsulate the
complex man that was Ian. He, always
marched to his own drum. I will always
admire for his thirst for knowledge, his
love of the good things in life but most
importantly for being an oak amongst
saplings.
Alex Garlick, affectionately called “Old
Tart” by Ian first met him 50 years ago in
the Clifton Hotel in Cape Town, a key
meeting spot for journos and those in
advertising.
Alex writes: “ I met Ian over a bottle of
vodka. The hotel was heaving, seriously
loud music playing, booze all over the
place and almost pitch black. One hellava
party, where everyone was more or less
legless.
And then one way or another, our paths
crossed all the time. There were children
and divorces and new lovers and ad
agencies where clients mostly did what we
told them to do. And wonderful evenings
with friends and then colleagues and
Snellers was there - and in his most
individual and specific way, slowly and
carefully making his point, so considered
and logical. Who then could argue with
him? But he was restless, ever seeking, ever
questioning. A little at odds with the life
he was leading.
Then Ian met Annie and suddenly,
everything dropped into its place. It was in
Forest Town, with his books, his media
planning, the last domino match with
Brewer and Huxham or the best red wine
for supper tonight that a solid vein of
contentment ran through Ian. That
contentment and his devotion to Annie
remained with him always.
Latterly we exchanged e mails, and so
typically Ian, I got sent quizzes and birds
and political polemic and just pure lovely
vulgarity.
I will miss him enormously and quoting
from a letter sent by Abraham Lincoln
"instead of an agony, the memory of Ian
will yet be a sad sweet feeling in my heart".
Chris Brewer first met Ian in the Sterling
hotel in Johannesburg in 1973 when Ian
was Chairman of the Media Association
and a shareholder of a ground breaking
advertising agency BDSTV. They shared
a love of card games and dominoes.
Chris writes: “He wanted to learn how to
play Bridge and I volunteered to show him
so we started a weekly game where,
naturally he soon became brilliant. Within
weeks he had mastered the game and told
me where I was going wrong. Within a
few months he was the best bridge player
I'd ever known from our amateurish
perspective.
At about the same time, I met Sam
Huxham (and shared a flat with him) who
was a good friend of Ian's. Sammy wasn't
such a good bridge player but he was a
whizz at dominoes and so we began a
weekly domino game - complete with an
annual trophy which understandably had
Ian's name all over it. Ian had the most
amazing brain and could calculate odds
within split seconds.
The difference between Bridge and
Dominoes is that, with bridge, you can be
dealt unlucky cards making it difficult to
win. With dominoes it's different. As Ian
always said "in the vast majority of games,
a good player with bad dominoes will
invariably beat a weak player with a lucky
hand" and that's true - as he proved over
and over again.
As a media planner he had little
competition and was quick to learn the
"new" technology of planning using
computer software. He taught me a great
deal about identifying target markets and
matching them to media opportunities.
He was one of the smartest men I ever met
and I was proud to call him my friend.
Shuffle the cards and mix the dommies
Ian!
Gordon Muller another advertising
colleague shared the following:
Before there were MBAs and Chartered
Marketers; long before there was Google
& eLearning; there were "fireside chats"
with mentors.
I have long held the view that if you
believe you will learn something new
tomorrow, you will never be afraid to share
what you know today. Ian epitomised that
ethos. For me and many of my peers, Ian
was our mentor and THE Oracle when it
came to understanding the media industry.
Sure, we had to buy him a beer or two but
he was unstinting in sharing his knowledge
and insights. Ian could have sold his
insights to the industry but he chose rather
to give them away.
The same guy, who wrote a novel without
feeling the need to plaster his own name
all over the cover.
That is how we in Media remember Ian.
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