Passing of a valued member

[Aaron Jackson]

Thank you Toby, for posting this, and for putting me in touch with Marc
in the first place.

I first met Marc in person at a talk at our university from Brian
Kernighan. While I nervously asked bwk to sign my copy of C, Marc had no
trouble initiating a conversation wit him. Marc managed to persuade bwk
to sign his 11/70 front panel, which he had brought along with him in
his backpack. "The good old days - Brian Kernighan"

Our friendship developed rapidly, and we have spoken every day until his
passing about a variety of topics - the main one of course being
PDP-11s. Marc helped me source my first PDP, he also picked it up and
delivered it to me. We had many fun times together, trying to fix
things, and unfortunately in some cases making things worse, for which I
blame the beer.

Marc was incredibly intelligent. I looked up to him, despite being a
similar age. It's hard for me to explain how much he meant to me, and
how much I am going to miss him. I know many others are feeling the same
way.

I miss you buddy.

Aaron.


Toby Thain via cctalk writes:

> To the list:
>
> It is with deep personal sadness that I write that young list member
> Marc Grenville-Cleave, of Dorset UK, has passed away. He was known
> personally to several list members.
>
> I did not have the pleasure of meeting him in person but as he was a
> longtime friend I wanted to write a brief celebration of his life and
> interests.
>
> Most relevant to this list, Marc was an avid DEC collector and PDP-11
> enthusiast and rescuer: http://marc.cleave.me.uk//pdp11/index.htm
> He was also the proud owner of a VAX-11/750, among other computers:
> http://marc.cleave.me.uk/collection.htm
>
> He was self-taught in many skills, including electronics, and had
> natural gifts as an engineer. Around the age of 14 he designed an 8-bit
> TTL CPU, which he called "Titan". You can read more here:
> http://marc.cleave.me.uk/cpu/ &
> https://github.com/bootnecklad/Titan-Specifications
> The machine was wire-wrapped and soldered with his trademark meticulous
> care, as you can see from the photos on the first site linked.
>
> Here is a picture of Marc with some of his favourite machines (Titan in
> the background): http://i.imgur.com/CCinlCS.jpeg
>
> Many people knew him on irc, as "bootnecklad" or "bnl", in the
> #classiccmp Freenode channel and elsewhere. His sense of humour was
> unique, sparkling and irreverent.
>
> Aside from his electronics and retrocomputing interests, he restored his
> beloved Range Rover Classic over a long period and finally got it
> roadworthy in 2016. He was a perfectionist in this project as in
> everything else.
>
> Most recently Marc was a Electronic and Computer Engineering student at
> the University of Nottingham.
>
> He will be painfully missed by very many people.
>
> --Toby


--
Aaron Jackson
PhD Student, Computer Vision Laboratory, Uni of Nottingham
http://aaronsplace.co.uk