Michiel Daniel (Danie) Overbeek, 1920 - 2001
Michiel Daniel (Danie) Overbeek, a long-time AAVSO member, the AAVSO's most prolific observer, and a dear friend of the AAVSO, passed away on July 19, 2001. Danie--also known as "OB" to anyone who has ever pulled up a data file on a southern variable star in the AAVSO's database (and some northern variable stars as well while he was stationed for few years in New York)--began observing variable stars on August 22, 1951 with the Mira variable, W Pav, when he was 32 years old. During his lifetime he contributed 287,240 observations to the AAVSO International Database--far more than any other observer in the history of the Association. The variable star he observed the most was VW Hyi (3,837 observations), the brightest dwarf nova in the southern hemisphere. Many of the AAVSO southern hemisphere program stars owe a large portion of their light curves to Danie's persistence and dedication in observing variable stars.

In addition to variable stars, Danie was an active observer of occultations, sudden ionospheric disturbance, and monitored seismic activity around the world with the seismograph he built.

Jan Smit, Janet Mattei, and Danie Overbeek at Jan's Garden in Pretoria, South Africa.

The AAVSO's 26th Merit Award was presented to Danie in 1986 "...in recognition of his dedicated devotion to observing variable stars in the southern sky...resulting in over 70,000 observations of variable stars, his excellent guidance of many variable star observers in South Africa, and his valuable service on the AAVSO Council." Danie was the recipient of three AAVSO Observer Awards: the first in 1994 for making over 100,000, another in 1997 for making over 200,000, and the third in 1999 for making over 250,000 visual observations of variable stars. He was the first recipient of the AAVSO Director's Award in 1994 for his vital contributions to variable star research. Minor Planet 5038 was named Overbeek last year to honor Danie for his contributions to astronomy.

Danie will be sorely missed--both in our archives as an observer and personally as a friend and mentor - Janet A. Mattei