Dan Roganti has logged off :(
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
That’s a great story Evan and my thoughts and prayers are with Mindy and his family. I saw him mostly only at VCFE, and was a great asset to the group. He will definitely be missed. Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________ From: 32422764100n behalf of Sent: Saturday, September 1, 2018 1:49 PM To: vcf-midatlantic Cc: Evan Koblentz Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Dan Roganti has logged off :( 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
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 only met Dan a handful of times since 2013 when I got involved with the group. We had some great discussions at VCF East XII, probably the most time I spent with him spread over a couple of days. I have to say as good as it was seeing him then, my favorite Dan story is when I saw him last month at his Daughters home. I ended up spending about 4 1/2 hours just shooting the shit with him talking about everything and anything. His passion for computers in general and VCF and our Museum specifically were as strong as ever, and much of our time was spent talking about how things got to where they are today and where he hoped they would go in the future. Probably the best 4+ hour long conversation I've had with anyone in quite a long time. We laughed, we yelled about things that pissed us off, we joked about Evan whenever possible ;-) (he really loved cracking jokes, not just about Evan!) I'm also glad that while he didn't get to see them, he got to see pictures of his apple II+ up and running and got the word I had resurrected his original Apple II as well. He was very upset he could not get them for me to bring home and fix when I saw him, but through the efforts of Dave McGuire and Jeff Brace I was able to get them with enough time to at least let him know they were breathing again and would be returned to his daughters in the condition and with the accessories he requested. It was so little on my part but was at least something I could do. That conversation will remain with me forever as a fond memory of sitting down hanging out with one of the nicer people I've met in my life. A tribute to Dan is how much of an impact he could have on people with the smallest amount of contact. Tony
Soo much sadness! :-( But I am surprised that your Miata didn't get liftoff from those balloons! I would like to thank him for taking this video: https://youtu.be/AaKwU0nbeaA Thank-you for letting us all know. *sigh* On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 1:49 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
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:
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
This is my all-time favorite of Dan's VCF designs. Proud to display it at VCF East 2015: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/VCF-East2015/IMG_3975.JPG Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
On 09/01/2018 02:50 PM, Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
This is my all-time favorite of Dan's VCF designs. Proud to display it at VCF East 2015:
That's a great one. :-) -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
I'm here at the museum today, so I was able to test my BASIC epiphany. It worked! As recently as a week ago I was talking to Dan via Facebook messenger. Sure wish I could share this news with him. We all know his reaction to such things: "Niiiiiiiiiiiice!" Dan's 16 lines are now working perfect in 7 lines. Why save so little memory? The better to honor him with... On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, 2:55 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On 09/01/2018 02:50 PM, Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
This is my all-time favorite of Dan's VCF designs. Proud to display it at VCF East 2015:
That's a great one. :-)
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
Its funny , the things you remember. I remember Dan testing my SD Sales Z80 card in his Imsaii for me at a workshop held at Bill Degnans house. He wasn’t afraid to plug it into his working computer. Although he did use a meter to make sure it had no shorts first. He was working on an Altair, I think a 680, putting wire jumpers on the front panel with little pins so the panel could be removed. He had also brought four or five large multi-drawer cabinets of parts to help fix other peoples computers. There were actual wheelbarrows full of TRS-80s there for some reason. I remember Dan as someone who was always there to help. That is to help other people fix their stuff. RIP Dan, I am glad that I met you. Bill Dromgoole From: Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Saturday, September 1, 2018 3:43 PM To: vcf-midatlantic Cc: Evan Koblentz Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Dan Roganti has logged off :( I'm here at the museum today, so I was able to test my BASIC epiphany. It worked! As recently as a week ago I was talking to Dan via Facebook messenger. Sure wish I could share this news with him. We all know his reaction to such things: "Niiiiiiiiiiiice!" Dan's 16 lines are now working perfect in 7 lines. Why save so little memory? The better to honor him with... On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, 2:55 PM Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
On 09/01/2018 02:50 PM, Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
This is my all-time favorite of Dan's VCF designs. Proud to display it at VCF East 2015:
That's a great one. :-)
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
Back at one of the early VCF East gatherings in 2008, Dan had brought a number of old coin-op arcade marquees to sell for ten bucks a pop. I was thrilled to pick up Scramble and Asteroids Deluxe. My coworker built me a light box for the Asteroids marquee, and it has sat over my desk at work ever since. The Scramble marquee sits over a door in my home office. Good memories. I am reminded of him nearly every day, as I use his VCF East "Where no user has gone before" designed mousepad. Dan had a great spirit, and I always enjoyed seeing him each year at the gatherings. I'm really sad that he has passed on. Andy On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 1:49 PM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
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:
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
I'm sorry to hear that Dan has passed. I had met him about 10 years ago and about 8 years ago we started working on our C64 8 Player internet game based on Artillery Duel Net. It was fun to work with him learning about 6502 assembly code and becoming friends with him. He was always helpful at VCF easts. I was glad that I was able to visit him two weeks ago and meet his family. He really enjoyed the visit and I thank Evan Koblentz for pushing me to go visit him sooner rather than later. He will be missed, but not forgotten. Such a great guy. Always working one project or another, never quite finishing one before moving onto another, but he has a wicked brilliant mind. Very smart. Loved that he made lots of comments in his code, as many programmers are very sloppy about that. Not him. I was glad that I could find an artist that could make a t-shirt design that would be him on his shirt. A fitting tribute to a such a great guy. On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 1:49 PM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
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:
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
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
participants (9)
-
Andrew Molloy -
Bill Dromgoole -
Bryan Pope -
Dave McGuire -
Evan Koblentz -
Jeffrey Brace -
Mike Loewen -
Richard Cini -
Tony Bogan