Rene was a Brazilian (born 1946 in Rio de Janeiro) who started “Origami München” in 1989, along with his partner Jan Spütz. This society made its mark with regional meetings and public events, such as paper aeroplane competitions. They even held a demonstration for Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of the Netherlands. In 1991 he attended COET and presented the paper “new technical possibilities for demonstrating the folding process into work with blind people.” The society was disbanded in 2002.

As well as organising numerous events, Rene wrote many origami books, including €urogami, Verzaubertes Papier, Das große Origamibuch, Fantasievolle Geschenkverpackungen selber falten, Geschenkverpackungen aus Papier, Origami Faltspaß für Kinder and Papierflieger. In the early 1990s, I was invited by Rene to be the guest at an OM convention. This was not only my first such invitation, but the first time I had travelled outside the UK - I was looked after superbly.

Rene was quite a small man, very quietly-spoken and not easily noticed in a crowd, but when you talked with him you were struck by his intensity and he gave much of his life to spreading the origami word.

Nick Robinson