At 06:32 PM 6/4/2013 -0400, Paul Wouters wrote:
Hugh Daniel passed away on June 3rd after what appears to have been
a heart attack.
https://nohats.ca/hugh-of-borg.jpg
<snip>
Since he was also very well known in the science fiction community, I
thought I would pass along details from an SF list that had them
(with permission from the poster on that list, Tony Cratz).
- - -
I have talked with Mel (Hugh's roommate) and got a bit more
information then I had earlier tonight.
I have known Hugh for a number of years (about the time he first
moved out to the Bay Area in the early '80s). And we have
maintain a close contact. Under normal conditions I would talk
with Hugh at least once a month. Often times more often.
In the 2011-2012 time frame he spent almost a year back in the
DC area doing work for a friend. He he came back he developed
an inner ear condition which earlier this year caused him to
almost be blind. He did get some meds for the condition at the
time but it was not until last month when he found the correct
me (or at least one which seemed to be working better). Of late
he has been able to see mostly normal (not his extra normal
vision which he had but closer to a standard 20/20 vision).
I last talked to Hugh about a week+ ago. At that time he was
on a good day after having had a few bad days and being almost
full bed ridden.
About half an hour ago (2:15 AM 6/4) I was able to talk with
Mel. Hugh had picked Mel up from the airport and seemed his
normal self (or at least his present condition self). Monday
morning Mel had walked around the apartment and knew that Hugh
had been up and not in his bedroom. Then at 2:30 PDT Mel went
to a movie. He found Hugh on the floor in the bathroom with the
water running (which was not running before the movie). Which
means the TOD was between 2:30-4:30 PDT. Mel did overhear one
of the EMTs say that Hugh's body temp (at that time) was at
72F.
Mel has confirmed that both Hugh's mother and sister has been
notified and he has talked with both of them.
At present we are not sure of cause of death but it would seem
to be heart attack or stroke related.
I for one will miss Hugh. He has been a good friend and help
me a number of times. When I had a tech question I wanted
answered, Hugh was the person I turned to in most cases.
I have enjoyed our late night chats on the phone during the last
few years. There has been times when he wanted someone to talk
to about technical issues, or about what was happening in the
world (such as the flooding and nuclear building collapse).
Or talking about how he was solving a human rights abuse issue
by being able to read 8 inch floppies which had been stored
away (this even made Frontline, Hugh was never mention as the
person, but he was doing the main technical work.) Hugh even
gave me a VoIP call while he was there. Or how he was
testing metal detectors in bath of dry ice, so Landon Noll
could used them for Antarctic meteorites.
I will miss my good friend.
Tony
- - -
Ben
-----
Ben Yalow ybmcu@xxxxxxxxx
