Howard Lange, President of the Washington Map Society from 2008 to 2010, with service also earlier as Director and Vice President, died September 15, 2011.  With cartographic interests of the Trans-Missouri West, Germany, Southeast Asia, and Malta, Howard earned his AB at the University of Nebraska and an MA in Asian Studies at the University of Washington (Seattle).  His career was in the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer from 1969-1998, with postings abroad in Vietnam, Philippines, China, Taiwan, Poland and Malta. 

He provided this commentary to The Portolan in 2002: “When is the best time to start collecting maps?  As with planting a tree, twenty years ago.  The second best time?  Today.  Serious pursuit of old maps came late for me, beginning just over two years ago, and I’ve since been trying to make up for lost time.  As part of my crash program, I am doing an inventory of the map holdings of the library attached to the Organization of American States in Washington.  This has proven to be a good vehicle for learning about maps and 19^th and 20^th mapmakers.  As for my own collecting interests, they have typical roots – family origins in Germany and thence via Illinois and Wisconsin to Nebraska, and on my wife’s side, Vietnam.  Disparate fields indeed for cartographic investigation, which should engage me for many years.”