In 1998-99, I had worked closely with him as an editor of Process, a Journal of Student Work. The books were eventually printed but it was a good lesson in how bleeping hard it is to get anything done. Indeed, it was such a painful experience that I had of blocked it out of my memory, but as I write, I can pinpoint this experience as the beginning of my Project Management career.
A year later (two decades ago from this year), I came back from spring break to find out he had committed suicide. It was utterly devastating. So devastating that I roped in a couple friends to do Process a second time. Which was yet again a grinding experience that overshadowed my senior year in college. I doubt it was a very good idea to volunteer for such pain and suffer, but in retrospect it was most likely good to do it twice, to learn that experience will make things a little easier, but not much easier.
The biggest payoff from this second run is that I became close to my two fellow editors over that crazy year, and I still telephone one of them every month or so. I’d say any effort that nets you something like that for the next 20 years is pretty damn good.
In any case, I spent yesterday morning looking up the grad student who had passed away in 2000. The internet now claims maybe he isn’t dead. It is a bit odd, because he has managed to have zero digital footprint, except for an award nomination in 1999, an exhibition announcement from 1998, and in the meeting minutes of some planning commission that noted he had passed away in 2000.
This wasn’t a man who could have laid low for twenty years. I suspect the internet is mixing up two people….but maybe not.
Even though I’m generally quite proud of my internet searching skillz, I’ve hit the end of the line – at least without spending a little money or significant time.
So I’ll try again in 2030. If the dude is alive but wants to stay deceased, I should respect his will for at least another decade. If he’s actually dead, there should be more free information available in the internet to confirm this loss.
And as a final little nugget, here is a photo myself (from 2006) that I came across while trawling through old emails. This had nothing to do with him, but I wanna post it somewhere!
