Monday, January 18, 2010

Jack

Jack Pickard has died. Jack was in his mid-thirties, married with two little boys. Apparently, this was very sudden and unexpected. The news is difficult to comprehend.

I was not close to Jack but he was a friend and someone I've “seen” several times a week for years. He was an entertaining and eclectic blogger – he blogged about current affairs, technology, football, Dr Who, books and philosophy. But to me, the two most notable things about the blogger Jack were his excellent sense of humour and his tremendous sense of fair-play. Inequality, unfairness in any form, from any quarter was anathema to him. And yet he was extremely reasonable in his arguments, never ad hominem, always sincere. His last non-football-related post is a good example.

Jack was a prolific commenter here - many of you will have seen him around. He was a supportive and enthusiastic promoter and participant in Blogging Against Disablism Day, despite being, as he put it, “disability-challenged” (non-disabled).

There's nothing positive to be said about such a death other than it was good to have him around. I feel so very very sorry for his family and close friends to have to lose him so suddenly when he had so much yet to do.

See also Ian Cuddy's post Jack Pickard Remembered and James' We'll miss you Jack

6 comments:

Gary Miller said...

Wonderfully fitting words for a wonderful man.

The number of comments, posts and tweets that are spreading through the ether are a testament to just how many people were actually touched by Jack.

Rest easy Jack.

Anonymous said...

Oh, very sad :( . I'm so sorry for this loss.

Jess said...

Oh my. Such sad news. I first encountered his blog thanks to you linking his Halloween Horrors challenge in 2007, I believe. He seemed to have a way of bringing all sorts of people together. I wish I'd got to know him better. A good egg, that man. Cheers, Jack.

Lisa said...

That's sad. I wasn't a really regular follower of his blog, but our online paths crossed several times and he came across as a good and funny guy.

Diane J Standiford said...

Yes, very sad.

Elizabeth McClung said...

Wow, I'm really sorry but thank you for telling me about this, I feel sad, frustrated too, that Jack isn't here anymore, he was a good guy.