Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:16, 5 January 2008

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This is both a memorial and listing of Wikipedians who have died.

Purpose of this list

The purpose of this list is to provide a reminder of those who have passed on and to remember the contributions these editors made to the success of Misplaced Pages.

Please do not add people to this list who were never an integral part of the community. People in this list should have made at least several hundred edits or be known for substantial contributions to certain articles. Do not add people unless you have confirmed information that they are deceased.

Deceased Wikipedians

= Anneliese Smith (Sango123)

Anneliese Smith (Sango123) died in a car crash in May 2007. Her boyfriend, who was driving the car, survived the accident.

Scott Laws (Dalf)

Scott Laws, username Dalf, died of colon cancer on September 14, 2007. He had been a long-term Wikipedian, editing since before 2005. He was 30 years old.

Gérald Anfossi (Nataraja)

Gérald Anfossi, username Nataraja, died of cancer on March 17, 2006. Gérald was an administrator and one of the most active editors on the French Misplaced Pages, where he contributed to numerous articles on South Asia. He also contributed many of his personal images to commons (such as Image:Sanchi2.jpg, which is featured on the History of India page, among others) and coordinated interwiki work between the en: and fr: wikipedias. His funeral was in his beloved adopted land of India.

Xavier Bonnafous (Xulin)

Xavier Bonnafous, a Wikipedian who primarily edited in the French Misplaced Pages under the username Xulin, died on May 7, 2006 during a hang gliding accident, according to online reports. Xavier also edited the English Misplaced Pages using Xulin, although this account was mainly used for interwiki work. On his French user page, Xavier said he was interested in free software and ecology issues. A memorial for Xavier has been established on the French Misplaced Pages.

Robert Braunwart (Rbraunwa)

Robert Braunwart (Rbraunwa) was born in Richland Washington in 1948 and grew up in Moses Lake. He lived for many years in Oaxaca, México and Los Angeles, California. He attended Reed College as a National Merit Scholar before transferring to the University of Washington. During his life, Robert worked as an administrative assistant, editor, small business owner, and online math tutor, but his major interests and activities centered on political activities and a variety of personal projects, ranging from co-founding the Professional Football Researchers Association to contributing almost 12,000 edits and hundreds of articles to Misplaced Pages, primarily on the viceroys of New Spain. Of these new articles, at least 15 were honored as Did you know selections. Robert died on October 14, 2007 from melanoma.

Timothy Garden (Tgarden)

During 2006, Timothy Garden, Baron Garden was an occasional contributor to his own article, as well as a number of articles related to the RAF and the British government. Garden died of cancer on August 9, 2007.

Uladzimir Katkouski (Rydel)

Uladzimir Katkouski, a well-known and award-winning Belarusian blogger, editor of several Belarusian websites and activist for the usage of the Belarusian language on the Internet. He made over 1,300 edits to the English Misplaced Pages and several hundreds of edits to the Belarusian, Polish, German and other Wikipedias between 2004 and 2006 as User:Rydel. Katkouski mostly edited articles about his country and his language and also got himself into a few POV arguments. Among the articles he edited were Orsha and Belarusian language. He was evidently hit by a fire truck and after being in a coma for about a year he passed away on May 26, 2007.

Rob Levin (Rob Levin)

Rob Levin, the founder of the freenode IRC network, died September 16, 2006 from head injuries sustained while riding a bicycle. Slashdot and Wikinews both had articles on his death. Rob was known as "lilo" on the freenode network. He is survived by his wife and son.

Neil Morris (Neilm)

Neil Morris lived in Southsea, England, where he worked as a Chartered Engineer and for a computer company. Neil was also an inventor, holding a patent to a drop detection device. Among the articles edited by Neil were Parallel SCSI, SCSI Enclosure Services, and Enclosure Services Interface. He passed away on September 17, 2006, according to a notice left on his user page. Further information on his life would be appreciated.

Bernard Norbert (Treanna)

Bernard Norbert, also known by his username Treanna, passed away on September 18, 2005. With over 30,000 edits, of which about 25,000 were in article space in just two years, Treanna was the most active contributor of the French Wikipédia. Aged 31, he had just started to contribute again after a coronary incident which had landed him in the hospital in July. The French-speaking community was informed of his condition thanks to one of his sisters, Anne, by email and on this page, throughout the summer. Treanna will be remembered as a great contributor in all domains, but especially in the domains of history, archeology, genealogy, palaeography and related topics. The French Misplaced Pages community has decided to honour him in working together on a WikiReader about the Middle Ages, a part of Wikipédia to which he has greatly contributed. According to Myriam, his youngest sister, the WikiReader could "help us, his family, to better realise the extent of what he knew and loved to share... the knowledge he did not have time to teach us". Many contributors expressed their condolences to the family here.

Maciej Ostrowski (MOstrows)

Maciej Ostrowski passed away on September 24, 2007 . Since January 23, 2006, he was an active contributor to the Polish Misplaced Pages. Due to his interests in theoretical organic chemistry, he wrote few articles related to this subject. According to his own userpage, he was interested in tumours, and enjoyed travelling – especially by train. He used to translate articles from the English Misplaced Pages and liked the Czech language as well.

Although he has been very sick and weakened for few years before his death, he used to describe his sickness on his blog (Polish).

Tron Øgrim (Tronogrim)

Tron Øgrim, a Norwegian Wikimedian, journalist, and author, died on May 23, 2007. He was 59 years old. Tron was one of the most influential people in Norway's Marxist-Leninist movement in the sixties and seventies. He was one of the founders of the Workers' Communist Party, a party which strongly advocated the Chinese branch of communism. Tron was also central in the founding of the newspaper Klassekampen and the publishing house Oktober. Tron became a journalist after leaving politics in the eighties, having a technology column in the Norwegian edition of PC World. Tron became a Wikipedian in December 2005, when libelous statements about a colleague appeared in a Norwegian (bokmål) Misplaced Pages article. Tron continued as a Misplaced Pages editor after the issue was resolved, writing about constructed languages through most of 2006. In the fall of 2006, his focus changed to Nepal generally and the history of communism in Nepal specifically (see Nepals kommunistiske parti (maoistisk) for an example of one of his articles.) Tron was known in the Norwegian wikicommunity for writing very long articles about somewhat obscure topics. Tron also cared much about smaller wikis and their progress. He was routinely posting messages about milestones at the Norwegian Village Pump, as well as participating on the Wikimedia News announcements page. Tron was extremely important for the Norwegian wiki movement, and he was often interviewed by the press about Misplaced Pages. He gave a lecture about Misplaced Pages when Misplaced Pages's founder Jimbo Wales visited Norway in May 2006. More info on him is available at Tron Øgrim and Misplaced Pages:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-05-28/Wikipedian_death.

Emil Petkov (Espetkov)

Emil Petkov (Емил Петков) was one of the first editors of the Bulgarian Misplaced Pages. According to his family and friends, he died on May 20, 2007. The cause of death is still unknown. He was residing in the Netherlands and working as a Software Engineer and a researcher. His last editing of Misplaced Pages is from May 16, 2007. He left behind a wife and a daughter. He also left the Bulgarian Misplaced Pages community in shock and disbelief with his sudden, untimely death.

Emil made many contributions to the Bulgarian Misplaced Pages in many different areas for the past 3.5 years. He was always ready to help and give advice. He was known for his sense of humor, for his perfectionism and hard work, and for his desire to keep the purity of the Bulgarian language intact.

David Shear (David Shear)

David Shear (David Shear) received a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1959 with majors in math and biology and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Brandeis University in 1966. He worked in the biochemistry department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and at the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin (where his son and wife are also faculty members.) In 1972 he published a science fiction novel, Cloning. He joined Misplaced Pages in September 2005 and focused on articles related to mathematics and thermodynamics. David passed away on April 21, 2007.

Hume Smith (Kwantus)

Hume Cottnam Llewellyn Smith (username Kwantus) died suddenly July 21, 2005, at age 38 in the New Halifax Infirmary, QEII, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born December 18, 1966 in Lunenburg, he attended Chester Elementary schools and was a graduate of Parkview Education Centre, Bridgewater. Hume held an honours degree in science and was the recipient of the Gold Medal for the highest academic standing in sciences and the Silver Medal for the second highest academic standing in his graduating class at Acadia University, Wolfville. He was a computer programmer and a member and assistant organist at Chester United Baptist Church and died of a massive heart attack within hours of completing a restoration project on his church's carillon, which he had worked on for over a decade. He had over 2000 edits to the English Misplaced Pages and created such articles as Conway chained arrow and Single bullet theory. Hume is survived by his mother, Gail Ida Hume Smith, and maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Hume, Chester. He is buried in Pinehill Cemetery, Chester, Nova Scotia.

Caroline Thompson (Caroline Thompson)

Caroline Thompson, a Wikipedian who primarily edited articles relating to quantum mechanics, died on February 8, 2006, according to her family. The cause of death was cancer. Thompson, who had written papers on the subject while a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, had edited sporadically in the months leading up to her death, last editing on January 10, 2006. She also maintained a website on her theories regarding physics.

References

1. In cranes, a symbol of hope
2. Terminally ill cancer patient rallied behind ‘1,000 cranes’
3. Discussion Utilisateur:Nataraja/Livre d'or (fr) and a notice from his wife on his talk page (fr). Accessed January 23, 2007.
4. French Misplaced Pages, a memorial to Xavier Bonnafous, and Forum du deltaplane, an online discussion on his death titled "Aurevoir XAVIER." Accessed January 23, 2007.
5. Comment on Rbraunwa's talk page, possibly confirmed by Jimbo Wales who protected the user page. In addition, confirmation comes from an e-mail sent to Misplaced Pages editor User:KP Botany from Robert's family members.
6. Air Marshal Lord Garden - The Guardian, UK
7. Вянок памяці: Уладзімер Каткоўскі. Аляксандар Лукашук, Прага, accessed May 25, 2007.
8. Slashdot article, "Rob Levin, lilo of FreeNode, Passes" September 16, 2006, accessed January 23, 2007.
9. Wikinews, accessed January 23, 2007
10. Lilo is Dead blog entry.
11. U.S. Patent Office US 7,084,759 B2, accessed January 23, 2007.
12. Revision as of 00:50, 3 November 2006 by User:Howcheng, accessed January 23, 2007.
13. Discussion Utilisateur:Treanna/hospitalisation, French Misplaced Pages, accessed January 23, 2007.
14. French contributor dies, October 10, 2005, By Ral315, Anthere and Notafish. Accessed January 23, 2007.
15. "zmarł 24 września 2007"
16. "Tron Øgrim er død" by TORSTEIN BRATTSET DRABLØS, Dagbladet.no Torsdag 24 May 2007, 10:32, accessed June 2, 2007.
17. "Tron Øgrim er død" by Toralv Østvang, fagredaktør, PC World Norge, 24 May 2007, accessed June 2, 2007.
18. "Norwegian Wikipedian and journalist dies at 59" by Kjetil r, Misplaced Pages Signpost, 28 May 2007, accessed June 2, 2007.
19. comment on user page and additional confirmation by admins Alabamaboy and Raul65.
20. LifeLines Genealogical System info on Hume Smith, accessed January 23, 2007.
21. The Halifax Herald Limited, Hume Smith obituary on July 23, 2005, with additional confirmation by User:RobHutten archived here.
22. Caroline Thompson user talk page entry of Revision as of 21:35, 10 February 2006, accessed January 23, 2007.
23. Misplaced Pages Signpost News and Notes section, "Wikipedian Caroline Thompson passes away" by Ral315, March 6, 2006, accessed January 23, 2007.

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