Dutch businessman, chess patron, and two-time world correspondence champion Joop van Oosterom died late last year at the age of 79. More here.
He was best known for sponsoring the Amber Blindfold & Rapid tournaments that attracted all of the world's top grandmasters except for Garry Kasparov, and he sponsored a number of other big events as well. He was one of the great sponsors of our game, and deserves to be fondly remembered by chess fans for the many events he organized and funded.
His prowess in correspondence chess is a bit iffier. It has long been rumored that Dutch super-GM Jeroen Piket did the heavy lifting for him; if so, this is unfortunate. (One commentator at the link above claims that the Piket rumor is false, but that other GMs helped him instead. Well, that's much better, isn't it?)
Anyway, he did a lot for the game, and it's nice to see some of the world's best players singing his praises at the aforementioned link. Our condolences to his family, may he rest in peace.