Mr. Holland's opus
By the time the site launched on September 14th, Colin seemed his usual self but tired. He still had that inner drive, however, to work on the site. Coincidentally the week of the site launch, he got a break in treatment so his energy returned and he was all over that site, loading in content, seeing what worked and didn't work, where the content was missing. He even created an art library for editors to use that first week. After site launch, every so often I would see him uploading batches of old ESC papers into our archive. He was doing it from the hospital because it kept his mind occupied during a doctor's visit. He wasn't one to feel sorry for himself, and once he told me that he didn't like others who felt sorry for themselves.
It seemed like he was commuting every day for some treatment or test and then coming home and chatting via Skype. I'm sure he was speaking with friends and family, but he was thoughtful to be available to me via Skype to chat so he could help out in some way or just chat about how things were going. Gradually after the site launched and we headed into November and December, he was on Skype less and less. But U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving got his ire up as it usually did, when he replied to a happy thanksgiving message from a manager thus: "I have to remind myself that you're not giving thanks for stealing our dominion from us but more that the good people from Europe came to civilize you."
The last note I got from Colin was handwritten note in a Christmas card, that said, among other things, "It has been a real annoyance to me that I have not been able to be of more help." I was able to get one last message to him and tell him how helpful he was.
As Colin wrote on Sept. 15th after the site launched, "The site you are now on is the start of that journey to meet your expectations." Thanks, Colin, for leading us through this phase of the journey. You are missed.
Susan Rambo was the managing editor of Embedded Systems Design magazine and now works on Embedded.com.
Loading comments... Write a comment