May 2016

At this time I am finally able to write this and put this announcement on this site. It has been a long time coming and certainly is time to make sure everyone knows about this.

For those who do not know, Dr Gerald V. Post, known to most of us as Jerry Post, passed away suddenly in his office at the University of the Pacific on October 20, 2014. Everyone who knows about Jerry, his books, this site, etc. knows that this is a great loss to the world. Yes, truly the world, many of his books were published around the world in multiple languages and many of his ebooks continue to be subscribed to and used around the world today.

For me, Jerry's younger brother, I miss him terribly each and every day. While Jerry and I have lived different lives in different states for more than half of our lives, since the time I was 18, we always kept in touch and what I find most interesting is we always discussed and collaborated on the technical world. When younger and both in and just out of college we would completely confuse our parents while sitting at the dinner table for some holiday and discussing the latest projects we were working on. Eventually, some of our collaborations lead to joint business ventures, one of those the company that hosted this site and the servers behind it. Other collaborations were just conversations that would lead each of us to projects down certain paths. In any case, those discussions are something I miss these days. While I have people I work with and discuss things with the level of discussion just isn't the same as it was with Jerry.

A vast majority of you probably know Jerry as the educator he was. I was and will always get to have the honor of being Jerry's first student. Here's the short story of why I consider this to be true:
When I was a freshman in high school and Jerry was a senior, our high school somehow obtained a 300 baud teletype terminal (basically a typewriter with a modem and paper tape) connected to a computer at the University of Minnesota (I was never sure why Minnesota since we lived in Wisconsin). One day, Jerry brought me into the room the terminal was at and showed me how to log in and basically get around. Jerry had already learned some programming in basic at that point and showed me how to get started; writing some code, compiling and running it. For that entire year we both spent a lot of time in that little room, making Jerry and I some of the first official computer geeks. It was that year and Jerry's introduction to computers that started me on a career in computers.

I'm not sure what else to say about losing ones brother. Its different than losing anyone else, that much I can tell you. I've heard so many great stories from so many of you over the last year and a half and I am really thankful for that. Thanks for letting me write down a few of my thoughts.

I'll be around, taking care of this site and shadowing Jerry, just like 1973/74. Drop me a note if you want.

Ted Post
(JerryPost.com System Admin)