Posted by Alan Hakim on July 06, 2025 at 08:56:08 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Dave Thewlis RIP posted by Jon on July 05, 2025 at 07:22:16:
This is sad news, but not unexpected. It is nearly 3 years since I last heard from Dave, and he had then reported having had a bad fall earlier in the year (2022) which made typing very difficult.
Then his addresses started bouncing my e-mails, so I feared the worst. Nobody I approached had any news of him, since no TarsUS member lived near him.
Dave was a longstanding friend from TarsUS, and we used to see quite a lot of each other; remarkable, considering we lived half a world apart. He used to organise that when he went to computer conferences in Europe, he would include a diversion to England, and sometimes he would stay with me. On one occasion he brought his Susan with him too.
I went to stay with him twice. He lived in Northern California, a long way from San Francisco, but still a long way from Oregon. He took me to see the furthest western point of mainland USA, nearby. On both visits my departing plane was delayed by weather and I missed my connection home. It was only after the second time that I learned that Euclid-Arcata airfield had been built during WW2 specifically to train Air Force pilots in taking off and landing in fog.
He was always very entertaining company, taking a quizzical view of the goings-on in TARS. "Show me the by-laws of a society," he would say, "and I'll tell you its history." One of his interests outside TARS was the Society For Creative Anachronisms, who reenacted historic US battles. We have similar societies here in the UK, but with less imaginative names.
On some of his visits to me I was able to organise Tars to come long distances in Southern England to have dinner with us. I also took him for a day out on the Isle of Wight (just across the water from me) which has no AR connections, but was the home of Tennyson, the poet. Dave, being built on Captain Flint lines, found the ascent of Tennyson Down rather a strain.
He was already greatly missed, and I mourn the loss of a good friend.
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