To the friends of John Slate

Let me take a moment to fill in a few details of John’s life. He grew up on Long Island, NY. He moved to Boston with his first wife and a daughter about twenty-five years ago. (I worked with him in a prepress department of about 20 strippers.) Unfortunately, that marriage did not last, so he returned to the NYC area where he operated a drum scanner and a Kodak hi-end color work station. There, he married a great woman named Jackie with whom he had another daughter they named Jenna.

John had serious heart disease and bypass surgery about ten years ago. After recovering, his wife took an engineering position with a western telecom company. With the change of locale, John became an active outdoorsman, hiking and climbing several of Colorado’s 14,000 footers. Another friend and I had visited him a couple times in recent years for hikes in the Rockies and the Grand Canyon. (These were the best trips three pixel-jocks could ever want to take.) I could never keep up with him, and I’m only a few years his senior.

His father was a lawyer and his mother worked in publishing. He inherited the intellectual talents of them both, plus he developed truly fine skills as a photorealist painter. I’ve known and met a few accomplished and influential people over the years, but I was lucky enough to have made a personal connection with this very special man. I know others were also touched in this way by his talents and efforts.

This is a disheartening way to greet the dawn of a new year. My best response to this loss is to resolve to imitate some of John’s geniality in my own social activities. Reflecting on his sociability makes me feel quite ashamed of some of my past behavior, especially on these Photoshop forums. If I share any thoughts here again, you can be sure I’ll have a constructive purpose in mind and a humble attitude in my heart.

P.S. These thoughts are compounded by the recent passing of Bruce Fraser, whose expertise I had come to greatly appreciate in his latest book about sharpening. Although I had minor disagreements with his thoughts on lithography, I presented my critiques of them in a very rude and inappropriate manner. Now, it’s too late to apologize.

Thanks for that, David. I really didn’t interact with John all that much, but when I did, it was most enjoyable and informative. My condolences go out to his family, and his friends that knew him well.

Geez, what do you say.

John was a guy I could have a laugh with. I’ll miss him.

My sincere heartfelt condolences to his family.

My condolences to his wife and daughter. John Slate was someone whose posts I could always trust. We’ll miss him.

Bummer.

My condolences to his family.

John was a good guy, he will be missed.

My condolences to his family

🙁

Farewell, John 🙁

This is very sad news; I always read his posts with great interest and appreciation. He will be missed here, I know.

Comfort to his family.

I mentioned this on the Illustrator forum where he was also a most valuable contributor.

This is really hard to believe, he was so rock steady!

His post always left you with a feeling of reassurance that you were in touch with the real world and you were more centered after reading what he wrote.

I don’t actually remember him being anything but right on the mark. I don’t think even once did he stray!

Someone we can all admire, I too offer my condolences to his family.

Thank you for such a great epitaph, david. I always enjoyed John’s company in the product forums as well as the Lounge. He was intelligent, articulate, and level-headed, and he had a very thorough understanding of prepress issues. He was a genuinely funny guy, as well.

Online friendships are oddly enduring. In one sense, we don’t really "know" each other at all, at least in terms of our physical identities. In another sense, however, I count many of my online acquaintences among my best friends, even though we wouldn’t recognize each other in person. If possible, could you please post a photograph of John, so we can associate a face with the name? Also please let his family know that he will be missed.

Well put Scott, I too would love to see a picture of John.

If you follow this link <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc2b497/6>, there are details of John’s memorial service along with a photo of him in his obituary. There are also ways to send condolences.