On my first Bonsai visit to South Africa I needed to find material for my demo at the convention. Rob was kind enough to let me use some raw material from his large Yamadori collection . I chose Celtis Africana or White Stinkwood which allowed me to prune and do some basic styling  quickly. Rob and some of the East Rand guys helped me prepare the trees for transplanting and we spent a day getting the Material ready. On the big day I was on the stage and explained that I was going to make a group. Some of the audience started whispering while others looked on in disbelief. The stage was empty except for a table on which there was a tiny pot with three tiny trees no more that 8 inches tall. I looked at the audience and then the material , made the three tree group  while all the time keeping a very straight face. When completed five minutes later I exploded with anger saying 'was this all South Africa could offer a visiting teacher?' Then I threw the tiny group into the side of the stage. The audience was either amused or horrified as after all, they did not know how I was going to react with this demo material. Then Rob and his team came on stage with a six foot long pot and these enormous trees. The audience were delighted with the joke and we had what was a four hour demo. Here are the results. It was really all down to Rob who made that demo possible.

Knowing that Rob was so highly respected as a teacher I asked him to be in my recent book where I included some of Rob’s superb work. It was through Rob’s contacts that this book also showed some of the amazing and international quality of the Bonsai of South African artists. As a fan of South African Bonsai and these artists I was happy to know that.  Rob  illuminated our life we should not be here to praise the ashes of the departed but to preserve his fire through the joyous memory of the man himself and that we will always be able to say, 'Rob Clausen, I knew him well'