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Ärende: FidoNews 25:47 [02/05]: General Articles
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                        GENERAL ARTICLES
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           Who remembers Doug Myers?
           Ward Dossche - 2:292/854

Who remembers Doug Myers, that wonderful editor of Fidonews?

It has been 8 years this past September when we all of a sudden were
without him.

His passing has been reported in Fidonews Vol.17 nr.39 with fine words
by Warren Bonner, another great spirit and a great man.

Sometimes Doug gets mentioned in a few of the echoes and I truly must
say I have never heard a bad word about him.

So this past week suddenly I had an enormous flashback. Some of you
know that I entertain good links with warren Bonner and that I even
visited him a couple of times in his Orange Ca home.

So Warren forwarded me a mail he just got from Jeremy Myers, Doug's
son.

Jeremy is on a quest to find-out more about his father, the things he
did, the values he stood for ... the friends he had in Fidonet.

This is the original mail of Jeremy:

**********************************************************
Date: 11/19/2008 6:46:48 PM
To: wdbonner@.......
Subject: Looking for friends of doug myers...

hello, i am looking for friend of my father doug myers....
i was hoping to find some that could give memories of what
it was like while he was editor of fidonews... been doing
alot of searching online and found a few comment of his
passing.... looking forward to talking to you

Jeremy J Myers
**********************************************************

With Jeremy's consent I am passing here his email address in hopes
that many of you will find the time to write to Jeremy:

   jeremy/dot/myers81/at/verizon/dot/net

Everybody hopefully knows what to replace the "/dot/" and "/at/" with.
Just trying to confuse spammers.

In order to avoid duplication, here's what I wrote him:

**********************************************************
Dear Jeremy,
[Thank you Warren for passing this along]

Your father was one of the most well-respected and undisputed people
in Fidonet where disputing peope at times was a sport.

He had nothing but friends there, and I absolutely mean that. At some
point 36,000 of them with direct connected people and perhaps millions
in a difuse world where Fidonet material, and the Fidonews
publication, seeped through to the internet. Really, I am not trying
to be melodramatic, just telling you a fact.

The day of his passing several of us, although never having physically
met him, felt as if punched in the stomach by a heavyweight boxer.
"Where were you when you got the news Doug Myers had passed?" was a
question that several could, and still can, answer. Well "Behind a
keyboard" is the most likely answer but nevertheless.

I remember there were some issues in the net and he volunteered his
phonenumber so I just called him from Europe, I live in Belgium, and
we had a remarkable telephonic visit which he subsequently went on to
publish in interview format but not without prior seeking my formal
approval (at the time I was the international coordinator of Fidonet).
That's one of the things he was ... a very honourable person.

Is there anything I can do for you?

Don't hesitate to write back. I'm glad to contribute to the memory of
Doug.

If you want to, I can have your mail "below" published in Fidonews and
see what reactions will come or you can write a special message to his
old friends. Some are still around however many have left as well (or
also died ... we are a passing breed you know, this is not
pNp-technology, you actually need to know what you are doing, so very
few nerds).

Sincere greetings and stay in touch,

Ward
**********************************************************

And Jeremy responded with:

**********************************************************
Thank you for your response.... I just wanna say that it warms my
heart to hear so many things about my father and makes me see what a
wonderful father i had.. The reason for writing the email and
connecting with his friends was not only to find out how he was but,
to make friendship with his friends its sorta my way of keeping his
memory alive. I knew that he was the editor of fidonews ( even tho i
had no clue what it was) i just had no clue that it went all over the
world and that he not only had friends in the states but, overseas as
well.

Yeah, i would like to have have an email published in fidonews but, if
its possilbe id like to write something to his memory.. i have felt
for sometime thatt i needed to.. it just took me 8 years to come
forward and bring me to do it... his death truly shattered me,
shattered me to the point that it took me eight years to recover.. i
would like to create a website (if i can figure it out) to his memory
where people can come on and write about him. i would also add the
replies that are emailed to me... all are welcome i love reading them!

thanks again for your response and feEl free to write....

Jeremy J Myers
**********************************************************

So there it is.

Please, friends of Doug Myers and everybody who knew and interacted
with him ... don't let Jeremy down and respond in memory of Doug.

It is not every day we get a request such as thisone. I'd hate to see
the opportunity get waisted.

Take care,

Ward Dossche




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