Hubert de Santana. Class of '57. award-winning travel writer, painter and photographer.

To read Hubert de Santana was to know him. For 30 years the award-winning travel writer, painter and photographer immersed himself in stories about exotic locales. But his were more than just pedestrian observations; Mr. de Santana's insights reflected his own colourful past, as well as an in-depth knowledge of art, history, classical music and literature.

The resulting word portraits were as vivid as his accompanying photographs — whether the subject was gardens in Japan, Finnish saunas or the following excerpt from the Star's travel section last month about an olive grove once owned by French painter Auguste Renoir:

"I share Renoir's fondness for trees, and I was fascinated by the old olives at Les Collettes. They have never been pollarded, and have grown tall and unchecked. Their trunks have flared into fantastic shapes, like gray landscapes of dried lava. Indifferent to the ravages of time, they have survived for nearly a thousand years."

Although Mr. de Santana suffered from ill health throughout his life, it never got in the way of his gregarious personality and artistic discipline. "He had a keen eye, a rare sense of humour and a unique sensitivity which came across in his writing and paintings," said Catherine George, the Star's associate travel editor and a friend for more than a decade. "When I think of Hubert, I think of the words of Robert Frost," she said, referring to the poem "The Road Not Taken."

"He took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference. I knew Hubert to be a thoughtful and talented writer, artist and a gentleman in the truest sense."

The youngest of four children, he was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. In his late teens, he was sent to study English and history at Huddersfied College of Technology in West Yorkshire, England. "His love of English was nurtured there," wife Susan said.

"My interest in Huddersfield is very personal," Mr. de Santana wrote last fall. "I was a callow, impressionable youth of 16 when I went there as a student from Kenya in the autumn of 1959. I stayed only two years, but they were years of self-discovery and accelerated maturity."

From there, Mr. de Santana went on to study philosophy and English at university in Dublin.

"By the time I arrived in Ireland in the 1960s, the great age of eccentrics was past," he wrote last year. "But there was no shortage of odd characters: from the Anglo-Irish aristocrat who painted the blue Chinese willow pattern on his cows ("Drab creatures, sir. Got to tart 'em up!") to my Dublin landlady, who carried her cigarettes in a soap dish and used a snippet of elastic from her panties as a bookmark."

In 1977, Mr. de Santana moved to Toronto, where several family members had settled.

He became a freelance travel writer and contributor to such publications as Maclean's, Reader's Digest, the Doctor's Review, the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

Although a chronic lung condition meant he couldn't walk more than two city blocks without experiencing discomfort, Mr. de Santana's adventures took him all over the world. Three times he won awards for travel journalism from the Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Canada, twice for stories on Portugal.

Mr. de Santana also produced lovely watercolours and pastels, as well as a book on Canadian painter Ken Danby.

"He was anxious to leave things of beauty behind," Susan said.

Ashante Infantry, Obituary Writer, Toronto Star, May. 27, 2003.

Hubert Ribeiro, son Mrs Angela Ribeiro and brother of Olaf, Teresa and Gerry (deceased) was known professionally as Hubert de Santana. Hubert Ribeiro passed away in Toronto on May 4, 2003 at age 60. He married Kenya-born Susan Wedgwood in 1994. Hubert was born in Nairobi where he attended the Dr. Ribeiro Goan School named after his grandfather.