Stefek Zaba

Yesterday I heard that an old and dear friend had died. By old friend I mean that I'd known him since 1985, but he wasn't yet 50. He died on Monday evening at Hewlett Packard in Bristol.

As I've not been at HP for almost 11 years Stefek was no longer part of my work life, nor had I been able to keep up with him socially. But once he, his wife and children were a big part of my life; and my heart goes out to those he has left behind - I weep with you Christina, Helena and Paul.

I'll remember Stefek as the Polish boyscout who never grew up; someone who smiled readily and was easy to work with, always ready to lend a hand. He was also very good at his work, a joy to be in the same team with. In 1987 we put together a proposal for a group, KEG, that meant we got to work together for a couple of years - probably the two best years of my working life. Certainly the funniest - his sense of humour was infectious.

I've been unable to excavate any of my own photos of Stefek to add to this post - I'll add one in if / when I find one. Meanwhile there is a great recent photo of him on: Goodbye, Stefek Zaba and the one I've borrowed here is from his home page which is also on his HP Labs Inventor Profile.

Update: His funeral service will be held at Clifton Cathedral on Pembroke Road a week Thursday, 5 April. Time yet to be confirmed. Everyone who knew him is welcome.

Lee (and blogging)

I've had various prompts to do this post, not least an out of the blue email from Lee's sister saying hello and asking where the web page I'd done for Lee had gone...

Lee was an incredible sky diver but she died following a mid-air collision in April 2003. By then she had moved from Bristol to California then on to Australia. As I wasn't well enough to regularly use the computer for email through much of this time I'd had little contact with her since 1996. However her death was a real blow to me and I grieved her loss fully.

One of the consolations I had was discovering a blogger who mentioned her. She had never met Lee but worked with her.

I made Lee a web page despite the fact that it made me quite ill to do so. And the idea of one day doing my own blog was planted.

There is another page dedicated to her and looking at it today I noticed that there was a picture of her with a Marilyn Monroe statue so I thought I'd do a variation on the Andy Warhol Marilyn pictures for her.

For those of you interested in Andy Warhol, whilst looking for references I found a page where you can play with the Marilyn image yourself.

My biggest regret is that I did not go to see Lee whilst she was in Australia. She'd written to tell me she had one of my paintings on her wall but I couldn't picture her properly... and so my resolution for 2006 is to go and see those people young or old whom I value in my life.

What resolutions are you making?