Thursday, April 30, 2009

John Ross (1947-2009)

I'm sad to report that my friend and technology colleague John Ross died earlier this month. Some of you may have known John as the author of books for O'Reilly and other publishers on computer networking. I suspect more of you knew him as one of the indefagitable organizers and the perennial emcee of the Band Scramble at the annual Northwest Folklife Festival.

I don't believe there's been an official obituary for John published yet, but you can follow the discussion of the sad news at the Mudcat Cafe website. (Mudcat's a group of people involved in the preservation and study of recorded music.)

I had the privilege of doing a bit of work with John on wireless networking issues for the Mac when he was expanding a book, originally for PC users, to a cross-platform audience. He also gave me much earnest advice on how to make a living as writer.

John's enthusiasm for folk music and knowledge and homemade cider will be remembered. A Celtic Band Scramble is planned in his memory at this year's Folklife (3:30-4 p.m. Sunday, Northwest Court Stage); I hope there will also be a somewhat less raucous gathering at another point.

2 comments:

  1. Hello--I'm a Seattle musician, who has also taken part in a lot of Folklife Band Scrambles over the years. Very sorry to hear about John Ross. In fact, I've mentioned him in my recent Squidoo lens on Folklife at www.squidoo.com/folklife . Is it okay if I link to this blog post from the lens?

    Thanks in advance,

    Karen Olsen
    tonksdhr@yahoo.com

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  2. Please link! Nice Squidoo lens on the festival -- great photos. Hope to see you at the memorial band scramble.

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