In Memoriam: Sipke de Wal

All, It is with great sadness that I have to announce the sudden and very untimely death of Sipke de Wal (the Xgistor) of Noordwijk, The Netherlands. After a brief period of dealing with an extremely malicious form of cancer, his body decided to give up late yesterday afternoon, May 13th, 2004. About 15 years ago, Sipke got me started in the PDP-11 collection "biz", when I had to get rid of my 11/40's, /34's and associated periphs. My uncle had a friend (Sipke) who'd probably take them, and, sure enough, he took them in. When I saw his place, filled with all sorts of old computers, I decided to "do that too when I grow up". I still have the MicroPDP-11 he gave me then. Last week, I got forwarded a message of one of his friends, asking for a new home for a (PDP-11) computer collection, because the owner had gotten seriously ill and had to let go. I was the first to respond, and "got" the collection. Sometime later, I started to realize that the list of equipment sounded familiar. When the intermediate friend told me that the owner lived in Noordwijk, all alarms went off. Some checking (I called his number) clarified things.. indeed, it was Sipke's collection, and he indeed was very ill. Still.. we hoped for some more time for goodbyes, a chat, and so on. I'll be taking care of his systems, which, as he put it, with a smile, "were kinda overdue in picking up, after 15 years!" Rust zacht, dear Sipke, and watch your blinkenlights go! Sipke's site is at http://xgistor.ath.cx/aboutme.htm. Fred -- Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist Visit the VAXlab Project at http://VAXlab.pdp11.nl/ Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/ Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Mountain View, CA, USA