 After 11 years and 25 issues, the journal team of Drachen says goodbye to our readers with this final issue. Under the research and journalistic expertise of Ben Ruhe, we have enjoyed learning new and exciting about the world of kites, its cultures and its people. Without fear and always with great enthusiasm, Ben has traveled more than four times around the world and visited almost every corner of kiting history, culture, art and sport. He yielded to no boundary—whether it geographic or political. He explored areas in kiting that hadn’t yet been touched, made many friends for Drachen and exposed many to kiting.
Throughout this time, little information about Ben himself has been given to the journal’s readers. A professional journalist with some of the best US newspapers, he took time off to vagabond around the world. He visited castles, kings and monks, never afraid to take colorful jobs when he needed money. After his world travels, he settled back in the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C., as an information specialist for the Smithsonian Institution. Beside his job at the Smithsonian, he gave much time to a personal passion for the boomerang (another object that flies.) Interestingly, this passion gave him much of the background to go on and report on the world of kites.
Ben was an important confidante and advisor to me before the Drachen Foundation had been born. I had traveled with Drachen administrator Ali Fujino to Ben’s Washington D.C. apartment to talk about book possibilities. Nothing came of that, but I got a glimpse of this mildly eccentric and wonderful man.
After closely examining every surface in the apartment, it was obvious that Ben was a voracious collector. More importantly, he had a variety of interests unlike anyone else—primitive spear points, modern art, boogie-woogie piano, and (his direct link to flying objects) boomerangs! A lasting memory from that visit was a visit to his artist friend’s apartment to see, first, his collection of art, but more importantly, his collection of marbles. Marbles! From then on, collecting, creating, and promoting kites seemed nothing more than mainstream to me.
When the Foundation was born, Kitelines Magazine was ending its great run and German and French kite magazines were coming and going; it was understood that a publishing arm would be a part of Drachen’s functions. When we established the Drachen Foundation Kite Journal to this end, it was understood that Ben would be its editor and primary writer.
Ben helped to define the Foundation’s mission, and his legacy is the volume of original material contained in the Journal section of the Foundation’s website. He leaves us to begin another frontier, immortalized in a film documentary as the guru of boomerangs and will be a consultant for the film.
Ben Ruhe has been an indispensable part of the Drachen Foundation and has helped us to strive to always work harder. Our final issue is dedicated as a tribute to his work.
I cannot thank you enough, Ben.
Scott Skinner
All photos courtesy of Drachen Foundation |
