I was notified by John's son that he passed away on Jan 14th.  John was not only a very active member of LOPSA, its board, and the system admin community, but he was also an incredible friend and a mentor to me. John was always optimistic, kind, considerate, and willing to help anyone who asked.

John passed on his knowledge via his stories of working both as a system admin and in his previous career as a machinist and by posting at http://blogs.lopsa.org.  He was a typical system admin of his era with no formal training, just a fascination of computers and a talent for troubleshooting their problems.  He was as master at making systems work long past their EOL date as evidenced by his work on keeping SCO systems running at his job.

Even though John had health issues, I was constantly amazed how he never let them slow him down.  At the age most of us would be happy to retire he was still on the board, actively coaching football, and working. Many of you saw him at LISA in Boston.  A few days after the conference he had open heart surgery to replace a blocked artery.  I talked with John last week and he was so happy as he had more energy than he had in years and was looking forward to attending more conferences and keeping his "little hacker" of a granddaughter out of trouble.

John, I miss you very much.  Peace be with you.

Ski