Most of us remember Steven as a man who wore one hat, a "Tam o' Shanter", and who wore it most of the time. But in reality he was a man who wore many hats, and he had many interests.

One of the things he was most passionate about was bird ringing. Steve believed in bird ringing because it was (and remains) the most practical way of finding out several critical pieces of information about birds. Effective conservation of a species is dependent on a knowledge of survival rates, movement patterns, age of first breeding and how these are changing. Bird ringing is the most effective method of discovering these aspects of the population dynamics of birds. Steve used bird ringing to find this information about his favourite bird species, the wagtails and the vultures.

For many years Steven was chair of the Steering Committee of SAFRING, the body which is at the helm of bird ringing in southern Africa. He successfully motivated the establishment of the SAFRING Trust, a ring-fenced trust fund within the BirdLife South Africa Trust. The objective of the Trust is to support SAFRING, especially to enable it to provide ringing services at affordable prices. The Trust has grown steadily, and the interest is used to make a small but growing contribution to SAFRING. In honour of Steven's huge contribution to ornithology, the SAFRING Trust has been selected by his family, friends and colleagues, out of a variety of possible memorials, to become the Steven Piper SAFRING Trust. The SAFRING Steering Committee would like to invite individuals, institutions and organisations to make a contribution to the Trust in memory of Steven's impact on ornithology.

The bank details of the Steven Piper SAFRING Trust are:
Bank: Nedbank
Account #: 1380 075 602
Branch: Westville Branch
Branch code: 138026
SWIFT code: NEDSZAJJ