In Memoriam Paul Schenkeveld 1964-2015

SirDice

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Paul passed away suddenly in Zurich on March 26, 2015. Paul was known to many
through his close involvement in the UNIX and BSD communities, and his colleagues
enjoyed his company as well as appreciating his great technical expertise.

For almost 25 years Paul ran his own company, PSconsult ICT Services. Besides
working hard for his company he was also involved with many NLUUG and BSD
conferences, as organizer of D-bug gatherings, as chair of the EuroBSDcon foundation
and as a speaker. His BSD knowledge and his gift for teaching inspired many people
over the years to explore UNIX and BSD.

In 2013 he started a completely new career with Google as a Site Reliability
Engineer, where many new colleagues got to know his warm character, his expertise
and his knowledge.

Many people have signed the book of condolence (see photo) - not just from the
engineering side of the company, but others as well, including the chef from
Thailand with whom Paul regularly chatted in Thai.

Paul also had great enthusiasm and passion for flying. He enjoyed explaining the
details of being a pilot in Switzerland, both the theoretical aspects such as
keeping and maintaining a licence and the enjoyment of flying around the country.
In the little spare time that he had remaining, Paul helped to run a local Scout group.

Paul, thank you for inspiring us!


JC van Winkel
Chair NLUUG 2000-2006
Colleague at Google 2013-2015

https://nluug.nl/nieuws/2015/20150326-paul/index-en.html
 
Paul had been a wonderful soul. I am extremely sad to learn about his demise. It is an invaluable loss to the entire community. Condolences to his family. RIP.

PS: Thanks SirDice for bringing this to notice.
 
Wow sad news indeed - worked with him and 60 other systemguys from 14 countries in the Comet Project that took place in Milan, I think in 1987. I can with certainty state that he was an extremely lively chap (I tried ONCE only to ride in his Mazda 2.x with spoilers, tuning etc....), but his programming skills in C was the best I have ever seen, the speed of his typing and his impressive deep understanding of Unix.... And he wore a t-shirt saying: "Unix-Freak" - I incisted that he was at least a guru, and I think a Daemon, but he really incisted to be a Freak. When he gave lectures in the auditorium, it was pure Gold - 60 SystemEngineers was silent in that time - he converted to a person with authority, which was a bit strange, because he would gladly show up wearing 3 ties in the Italian colors, as a response to a complain that he didn't wear a tie. How can You not love such a person. RIP.
 
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