Hey guys. I'm very sorry to announce that my good friend Ragooman took his last breath this morning. Dan was among the first wave of 10-15 people to join MARCH back in 2004-2005. AFAIK, in the many years since then, we never lost any core members until now. Dan was one of those people who everyone liked being around. He was friendly to all, wickedly funny, and sharp as a knife. He was a US Air Force veteran, an electronics technician, a proud native of Long Island, and become a proud resident of Pittsburgh -- he even switched allegiances from the Jets to the Steelers. He lost his wife several years ago and took great care of his daughters Mindy and Katie. He put them both through college, and they both share his technical aptitude. He had a shirt that says, "Every great father teaches his children the ways of the Force." Here's a picture: http://snarc.net/dan_kids.jpg Dan loved all aspects of vintage computing. He was equally passionate about Apple IIs and Commodore 64s as he was about Star Trek and Star Wars. He loved his IMSAI and was a perpetual tinkerer. He drew most of the VCF East t-shirt designs especially in the MARCH era. He often suffered from feature creep .... he was so obsessed with making things better than he rarely got anything actually done. :) He also individually mentored Jeff Brace and I with a lot of programming subjects. Dan got sick a year or two ago and fought the dreaded "C"-word bravely, but unfortunately there was only so much the doctors could do for him. I miss him already. Mindy will let me (and/or Dave McGuire) know soon about the arrangements. At the very least, VCF will follow Dan's (private) wishes regarding his collection. I hope we can do far more to honor him. He knew about our 2018 t-shirt design and loved it. In the past I've found it helpful to focus on happy memories of lost relatives/friends, rather than the sadness of their death. So let's all do something: please reply to this list message and share your favorite Dan story! I can't wait to hear them. I'll go first. The last group event Dan was able to attend, due to his health, was VCF East XII (2017). He arrived a day early to help set up. I didn't want to give him any real labor due to his condition. So I gave him busy work. I told him to go to the party store and get some helium balloons. We'd put them on the doors of the buildings being used for the show. He did as asked, but I was so busy that I forgot to put up the balloons. Dan wasn't amused, but he understood, so as pretend "revenge" he put the balloons on my car! At first he denied it because he thought I was mad. Then I said, "No, it's funny." While never formally confessing, he replied, "Other people helped." (Looking at you, Brace!) Here is a picture: http://snarc.net/dan_balloons.jpg