SGML: Memory of Yuri Rubinsky (1952-1996)
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From: "W. Eliot Kimber" <kimber@passage.com>
Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml
Subject: Re: Yuri Rubinsky (1952-1996)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 17:58:31 -0600
Organization: Passage Systems Inc.
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Message-ID: <31081927.4A35@passage.com>
References: <1996Jan24.223027.19639@sq.com>
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Yuri Rubinski passed way very suddenly on Jan 21. His loss comes as a
tremendous shock to me and, I'm sure, to everyone who knew him. SGML had
no greater friend than Yuri, whose tireless efforts on behalf of the
Standard and his own company, SoftQuad, had profound and long-lasting
effects.
Anyone who has read The SGML Handbook knows of Yuri. Anyone who has
attended any of the annual SGML conferences knows who Yuri is. Yuri gave
as much as any one human being could and in so doing helped make the
SGML world a more interesting and rewarding place to live and work.
As a person, Yuri possessed an almost mystical ability to charm and
inspire even the most uninterested. I know there are people doing
excellent SGML work today because of Yuri. Yuri was also a statesman,
helping to bridge ideological gulfs, most recently between the SGML and
Web communities.
For myself, the prospect of getting to see Yuri again was a compelling
reason for attending the SGML conferences. Like the favorite uncle who
always has an unexpected gift and a subversive wink when your mother's
not looking, Yuri always had a surprise of some sort and a scheme or two
in the works. Yuri was always receptive to wild ideas and, more often
than I would have ever hoped, acted on them.
Yuri was always accessible, always willing to listen. One evening at
SGML '93, Steve Heibert, Dave Hollander, Terry Allen, and myself were at
dinner, bemoaning the lack of free and affordable SGML software,
specifically editors. While we were grousing, Yuri, who happened to be
eating in the same restaurant, walked by on his way out. We
presumptuously grabbed him, sat him down, and proceeded to make our
case. Yuri took our ideas (refined so as to be even remotely practical)
to his board of directors the next day. From that conversation came
HoTMetaL and Panorama, the first free SGML editor and browser provided
by a commercial concern. Yuri took a great risk and, fortunately for
SoftQuad, did so successfully. I found it wonderful that he entertained
the idea at all. That he made it real was miraculous.
Yuri was a wonderfully interesting person. He was an architect by
training; a scholar who wrote and published books on a variety of
topics. He was a caring man who thought deeply about the implications
and potentials of what he and the SGML community were doing. He could
have retired to his country home to enjoy the well and hard-earned
fruits of his labors, but he didn't. He continued to work for all of us
even in the face of great physical pain. [Yuri had been plagued by gall
stones for a number of years. At the HyTime conference last summer, Yuri
colleagues arrived, was suddenly struck by severe pain, and literally
turned around and took a taxi to the hospital, yet he was back the next
day, working his magic at the conference.]
SGML and the world have lost a great friend and champion. Yuri's passing
leaves a hole that I doubt can ever be filled. I hope that we can honor
his memory by trying to bring to our work just a little bit of the joy
and vision and dedication that Yuri brought to everything he did.
I want to offer my deepest condolences to Yuri's family, his colleagues
at SoftQuad, and those of us fortunate enough to have known him. He will
be missed.
--
<Address HyTime=bibloc>
W. Eliot Kimber (kimber@passage.com) Systems Analyst and HyTime
Consultant
Passage Systems, Inc., 2608 Pinewood Terr., Austin TX 78757
(512)339-1400
10596 N. Tantau Ave, Cupertino CA, 95014, (408) 366-0300
</Address>