Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians

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This is both a memorial and listing of Wikipedians who have passed away.

Contents 1 Purpose of this list 2 Deceased Wikipedians 2.1 Gérald Anfossi (Nataraja) 2.2 Xavier Bonnafous (Xulin) 2.3 Rob Levin (Rob Levin) 2.4 Neil Morris (Neilm) 2.5 Bernard Norbert (Treanna) 2.6 Push Singh (Pushsingh) 2.7 Hume Smith (Kwantus) 2.8 Caroline Thompson 3 Possibly deceased Wikipedians 3.1 Frederick E. (Buttered Bread) 4 References

Purpose of this list

The purpose of this list is to provide a reminder of those who have passed on and to remember the contributions these editors made to the success of Wikipedia.

Please do not add people to this list who were never an integral part of the community. People in this list should have made at least several hundred edits or be known for substantial contributions to certain articles. Do not add people unless you are certain they are deceased.

Deceased Wikipedians

Gérald Anfossi (Nataraja)

Gérald Anfossi, username Nataraja, died of cancer on March 17, 2006. Gérald was an administrator and one of the most active editors on the French Wikipedia, where he contributed to numerous articles on South Asia. He also contributed many of his personal images to commons (such as Image:Sanchi2.jpg, which is featured on the History of India page, among others) and coordinated interwiki work between the en: and fr: wikipedias. His funeral was in his beloved adopted land of India.^[1]

Xavier Bonnafous (Xulin)

Xavier Bonnafous, a Wikipedian who primarily edited in the French Wikipedia under the username Xulin, died on May 7, 2006 during a hang gliding accident, according to online reports. Xavier also edited the English Wikipedia using Xulin, although this account was mainly used for interwiki work. On his French user page, Xavier said he was interested in free software and ecology issues. A memorial for Xavier has been established on the French Wikipedia. ^[2]

Rob Levin (Rob Levin)

Rob, the founder of the freenode IRC network, died September 16, 2006 from head injuries sustained while riding a bicycle. Slashdot^[3] and Wikinews ^[4] both had articles on his death. Rob was known as "lilo" on the freenode network. He is survived by his wife and son.^[5]

Neil Morris (Neilm)

Neil Morris lived in Southsea, England, where he worked as a Chartered Engineer and for a computer company. Neil was also an inventor, holding a patent to a drop detection device.^[6] Among the articles edited by Neil were Parallel SCSI, SCSI Enclosure Services, and Enclosure Services Interface. He passed away on Sept. 17, 2006, according to a notice left on his user page.^[7] Further information on his life would be appreciated.

Bernard Norbert (Treanna)

Bernard Norbert, also known by his username Treanna, passed away on September 18, 2005. With over 30,000 edits, of which about 25,000 were in article space in just two years, Treanna was the most active contributor of the French Wikipédia. Aged 31, he had just started to contribute again after a coronary incident which had landed him in the hospital in July. The French-speaking community was informed of his condition thanks to one of his sisters, Anne, by email and on this page,^[8] throughout the summer. Treanna will be remembered as a great contributor in all domains, but especially in the domains of history, archeology, genealogy, palaeography and related topics. The French Wikipedia community has decided to honour him in working together on a WikiReader about the Middle Ages, a part of Wikipédia to which he has greatly contributed. According to Myriam, his youngest sister, the WikiReader could "help us, his family, to better realise the extent of what he knew and loved to share... the knowledge he did not have time to teach us". Many contributors expressed their condolences to the family here.^[9]

Push Singh (Pushsingh)

Push Singh passed away on February 28, 2006. He was known on Wikipedia for his contributions to AI, specifically with his creation of the commonsense reasoning article. Singh was a PhD student at MIT, where he also worked in the MIT Media Laboratory. His death was as an "apparent suicide", possibly due to ill health.^[10]

Hume Smith (Kwantus)

Hume Cottnam Llewellyn Smith (username Kwantus) died suddenly July 21, 2005, at age 38 in the New Halifax Infirmary, QEII, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born December 18, 1966 ^[11] in Lunenburg, he attended Chester Elementary schools and was a graduate of Parkview Education Centre, Bridgewater. Hume held an honours degree in science and was the recipient of the Gold Medal for the highest academic standing in sciences and the Silver Medal for the second highest academic standing in his graduating class at Acadia University, Wolfville. He was a computer programmer and a member and assistant organist at Chester United Baptist Church and died of a massive heart attack within hours of completing a restoration project on his church's carillon, which he had worked on for over a decade. He had over 2000 edits to the English Wikipedia and created such articles as Conway chained arrow and Single bullet theory. Hume is survived by his mother, Gail Ida Hume Smith, and maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Hume, Chester. He is buried in Pinehill Cemetery, Chester, Nova Scotia. ^[12]

Caroline Thompson

Caroline Thompson, a Wikipedian who primarily edited articles relating to quantum mechanics, died on February 8, 2006, according to her family. ^[13] The cause of death was cancer. Thompson, who had written papers on the subject while a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, had edited sporadically in the months leading up to her death, last editing on January 10, 2006.^[14] She also maintained a website on her theories regarding physics.

Possibly deceased Wikipedians

Wikipedians listed in this category have been reported as dead but confirmation and a source of information is needed to officially list them.

Frederick E. (Buttered Bread)

Frederick E. was a Wikipedian known as User:Buttered Bread from November 30, 2005 to December 25, 2005. His userpage says he was born in 1983 with HIV. He edited regularly starting in November, stopped editing in mid-December, and reappeared on Christmas to say he had been very sick and was in and out of the hospital. He has not edited since, and an e-mail sent recently asking if he was OK was not replied to. Further information on Frederick would be helpful.

References