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Ärende: FidoNews 32:12 [03/08]: General Articles
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                        GENERAL ARTICLES
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                         Roy Witt RIP
                By Michiel van der Vlist: 2:280/5555


Yesterday I got an e-mail from andru boz. He is the friend that
looks after Roy's house. He got my e-mail address from Roy's neigh-
bour who I spoke to on the phone last Tuesday. andru boz is listed
as 1:387/23 (Pvt). Andrew agreed to have this published.

This is what Andrew had to say:


==== begin e-mail ====

Hello.  I am Roy Witt's longtime friend andrew.

I met him in his machine shop in 1990. I decided i needed to have a
friend who knew everything about making things out of metal so we
stayed friends for 25 years.  not an easy  task with somebody as
stubborn as Roy. The day we met he was on his 286 computer in his
office arguing with somebody on a bulletin board about cars or
carburetors  so somebody on fidonet has probably known him as long
as i have.

He had been fighting cancer for several years and it started getting
the best of him last fall.  They tried aggressive radiation around
October. after that all he would say is "I dont have to go back."
what he would not tell me was the insurance company had decided
there was no more could be done and they would not allow further
treatment.  he managed to have a good thanksgiving holiday with his
friend harry's family.  he also made it to Harry's Christmas dinner
but by then his appetite was gone and he'd finally given in and
started taking pain killers.  he had been holding off on those too.


about mid January he had lost a lot of weight. I became concerned
and emailed his sister to come down.  she came down the first of
February.  she stayed a week cleaned house fed him what he could
eat and thought if we could  make the pain go away maybe his
appetite would come back.

so we wasted a few weeks trying to  contact a back surgeon when we
really should have been starting hospice care. [you cant do both.
either one or the other]  so the first week of Feb he had a cane.
the second week of Feb he needed a walker by the last week of Feb
he was bed ridden.

When we finally got hospice care those nurses could already tell he
only had days left. they mentioned that patients often go when
strange weather blows through. and in the last few days we had a
warm front then a cold north wind then a warm south wind again.
Roy's sister came back to town on sunday March 8th at 4pm and at
7pm he died.  i am glad he no longer suffers.

being a stubborn guy he didn't think anybody deserved his money
cause it was his money. so he didn't have a will. his sister will
eventually get control of his asssets but he didn't make it very
easy for her.  at least Roy's dog missy has a happy ending.  roy's
sister has 3 other dogs and 10 acres of land to run around on.

Roy spent so many hours chatting and arguing and irritating folks
around the world on fidonet, i had a feeling he would be missed.
he often mention ward dosche or dosche ward - hope you can get this
note to him..

thanks
andrew

==== en e-mail ====


For those wondering about Nancy: When I asked Andrew what happened
to her, his reply was:

   "Antoinette has been gone for 12 years now. Nancy.... interesting.
    Somebody he made up?"


Well, that's Roy. May he rest in peace.



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Time to reflect - No more Roy Witt
Ward Dossche - 2:292/854

Who ever would have believed I would be writing an obituary
for Roy Witt?

No way, Roy Witt cannot die! And yet he has.

His last message in an echo dated from January 17th, 2 months
ago, and though he has had absences from the network, this was
not his style.

Remarkably enough, it were the people in zone-2 that started
noticing his absence, was it the lack of noise, the lack of
insults, no more "diarhea is flowing from your mouth" nor the
amounts of shit that were claimed to be contained in yours
truly which would have taken care of any fertilisation problem
anywhere in the world.

The news, if it was news, was conflicting but the writings on
the wall were obvious … phone numbers disconnected, binkd-
servers obviously "down" as if someone shut 'm off and an
overall denial-mode … "he will be back" …

Well, he won't be back and I'm afraid a "told you so" is in
order.

Nevertheless it is truly fitting that a few thoughts are
devoted to the phenomenon that we know as Roy Witt.

Some will call him a colourful beacon that withered away, some
will call him a champion of free speech … let me put it this
way: I'll grant that he added a special flavour to the
discussions, but often one we could do without.

To underscore his attitude, a verbatim quote of him discussing
the Holloway-case dating from Jan.20 2008 reads:

RW> There is no need to 'apologize' for reporting the
RW> news, even if it's misleading to the public.

Meaning "It's OK to lie".

So he also lied a lot. He lied about a wife named Nancy which
wasn't there (even posted photos of a female and alleged it
was Nancy), he lied about working on the Boeing-727 program.
He was intelligent enough but was a master of cross posting
material about subjects from other sources on the internet
while being completely unknowledgeable about the element
discussed.

He was not a constructive man, he was bitter, very
confrontational and it sometimes got worse during the years,
probably influenced by the dreaded disease that finally cut
him down. He often was abusive and obscene, except for the
subjects of 'car mechanics' and 'HAM radio'.
I consider it a loss too in some ways. The death of almost any
human is a loss to someone or something, and so bit it for
Roy. He seemed to have a few good friends and at least a
caring sister, that is more  than a lot of other people can
say. When he mentioned my name to others complete outside my
list of contacts, it kinda baffled me. Did I influence Roy
too? So, in his private circles, Roy will be missed.

The lack of his interventions lately was noticed on the wires
and knowing his health issues, caused concern. There will be
even more silence now. But in the end, Roy was an individual
whose rampages were only possible because of an administration
that allowed him to go unchecked for 20 years, or maybe more.

If there is an afterlife and he gets to enjoy it, I'm certain
he will be smirking from somewhere when noticing the
discussion about his demise, turned-out to be one of the
broadest sustained exchanges of the modern days of Fidonet.

Nevertheless, Roy … rest in peace. The final part of your life
was not a happy one and nobody deserves this. I wish we would
have known and got you some relief before transiting from
Fido-life to Fido-lore. In a way I'm saddened we never were
able to share a coffee or a pizza.

Take care, my ....

Ward

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