Carlos Flores Gutiérrez (ESP) HM, SIM, IA

Thursday, January 4, 2018: Appreciation of a dear friend by Alan P. Borwell

It was at the 1994 ICCF Congress in Perth that I first met Carlos, when he succeeded Carlos Ros Miro who had been ICCF delegate for Spain (CPAP then AEAC) but had not attended ICCF Congresses. We soon became good friends. 

I remember him asking where we lived in Scotland. I replied "in a village between Perth and Dundee called Inchture, but you will not know it". He replied that he did know exactly where it was as he remembered passing it every year on his way to Dundee to negotiate contracts for providing Seville oranges to Keiller's, to make their very famous marmalade!
 

The following year, the Congress was in Gjørvik in Norway where I was appointed as Deputy President (Development) from 1/1/96, having been the ICCF Treasurer for 12 years. H-J Huybtecht (BEL) was elected to be my successor but he did not take up the duties. Therefore, at the August 1996 Congress, it was proposed and agreed unanimously that Carlos Flores from Spain should become the new Treasurer.

I had completed the accounts up to the end of 1995, so an urgent task was to hand everything over to Carlos to start work on the 1996 accounts and I travelled to Seville soon afterwards to hand over all of the financial documents.
We met in the boardroom of his rather large fruit processing factory in Seville and became personal friends thereafter. He soon converted my very old fashioned manual accounts to a computerised system and for the next 8 years he served as the ICCF Treasurer with much distinction.

 Although he retired officially at the end of 2003 (in which year I retired as ICCF President), none of the next (several) elected Finance Directors fully completed the work. Carlos generously agreed to help to finalise the accounts for those intervening years to the end of 2008 to enable Scotland’s George Pyrich, the new Finance Director, to take over from 1/1/2009.   ICCF therefore is greatly indebted to Carlos for all of those years of dedicated work which he did quietly and efficiently, as well as being a very good and diligent delegate for his country.

I was delighted when Carlos told me before the Mumbai Congress in 2004, that Spain was considering making an offer to host the 2007 ICCF Congress. He asked me to assist him in searching for a suitable venue in Andalucia and we went together to the Hotel Alay in Benalmadena to view the facilities and to meet the Management and were impressed. Accordingly, this was confirmed as the 2007 venue and Carlos and his AEAC colleagues arranged a superb event.

Who could forget Carlos and family’s Flamenco dancing!

Of course, in his capacity as ICCF Treasurer, Carlos was much involved with the many initiatives taken during his term in office, ranging from inception of financial plans, revision of the fees structure, introduction of new officials allowances, acquiring of Millennium event’s sponsorships, ensuring viability of the ICCF Gold book, the starting of direct entry facilities and financing the webserver system.

Above all, I found Carlos to be totally committed to his work for ICCF which he carried out with great skill and diligence and, above all, with a very friendly disposition. 

He was a true gentleman and will be sadly missed by his Bely and lovely family in Seville and all friends Worldwide.

Carlos was also a very active tournament director (IA) as well as being a very strong correspondence chess player, aspiring to a SIM title in 2002 with a rating of almost 2500.

Here are a few photos with captions which bring back some very happy memories to those of us fortunate to know him.

In November 2017, Moira and I visited Benalmadena again for a memory lane trip, staying close to the Marina where the 2007 Congress was held in the Hotel Alay. We arranged to have a day in Seville and meet Soren Peschardt who was the delegate for Denmark for many years and is now married to Anchy Flores, one of Carlos' daughters. As Carlos was very poorly we were not sure whether he would manage to meet but were delighted that he and Bely came to join us for lunch in a restaurant near to their home. Although frail, Carlos was cheerful and lucid and we had lovely conversations with him about the "good old days" and Soren told us later that Carlos has really enjoyed the afternoon, although it had been tiring for him. We will always treasure the memories of a lovely day and we are most grateful to Soren and Anchy for making arrangements and for their kind hospitality during our visit to Seville.

• Carlos Flores Gutiérrez