Dr. Deborah M. Geisler (Deb) passed away today at the age of 66 after a
long battle with lung and heart disease. She was resting comfortably
under hospice care at home before passing.

Deb was, at her core, a teacher. As a professor of Communication and
Journalism at Suffolk University, she touched the lives of students for
over 30 years. Deb never stopped caring profoundly about her students
and the material she taught. She was also a science fiction fan and
conrunner and made many friendships in that community. She was chair of
Noreascon 4, the 2004 Worldcon, and volunteered her time, experience,
and snark to many other conventions. She was also the love of my life
-- we would have been married 33 years this October.

Deb is survived by her sister Libby and brother Doug as well as her
extended family.

--
Mike Benveniste -- mhb@murkyether.com (Clarification Required)
Such commentary has become ubiquitous on the Internet and is widely
perceived to carry no indicium of reliability and little weight.
(Digital Media News v. Escape Media Group, May 2014).

On 3/23/24 10:25 AM, Michael Benveniste wrote:
> Dr. Deborah M. Geisler (Deb) passed away today at the age of 66 after a
> long battle with lung and heart disease.  She was resting comfortably
> under hospice care at home before passing.
>

Oh, no. So sorry to hear that. It was fun working under her at the last
Noreascon.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

In article <17bf6ae2d6b8207f$41799$3716115$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com>,
Michael Benveniste <mhb@murkyether.com> wrote:
>Dr. Deborah M. Geisler (Deb) passed away today at the age of 66 after a
>long battle with lung and heart disease. She was resting comfortably
>under hospice care at home before passing.
>
>Deb was, at her core, a teacher. As a professor of Communication and
>Journalism at Suffolk University, she touched the lives of students for
>over 30 years. Deb never stopped caring profoundly about her students
>and the material she taught. She was also a science fiction fan and
>conrunner and made many friendships in that community. She was chair of
>Noreascon 4, the 2004 Worldcon, and volunteered her time, experience,
>and snark to many other conventions. She was also the love of my life
>-- we would have been married 33 years this October.
>
>Deb is survived by her sister Libby and brother Doug as well as her
>extended family.

[Hal Heydt]
My condolences. It's tough to lose a long term partner, no
matter what the cause.

Michael Benveniste <mhb@murkyether.com> wrote:
> Dr. Deborah M. Geisler (Deb) passed away today at the age of 66
> after a long battle with lung and heart disease. She was resting
> comfortably under hospice care at home before passing.

My condolences.

> She was also a science fiction fan and conrunner and made many
> friendships in that community. She was chair of Noreascon 4, the
> 2004 Worldcon, ...

I attended, volunteered at, and enjoyed that Worldcon, although I had
been on the committee for the competing Charlotte bid.

Thanks for posting this. Far too many people in fandom just
disappear, and we never find out what happened to them. Many are
alive and well, but somehow got the idea that Usenet had died.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On 3/23/24 4:51 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

> Thanks for posting this. Far too many people in fandom just
> disappear, and we never find out what happened to them. Many are
> alive and well, but somehow got the idea that Usenet had died.

The Glasgow Worldcon has posted and is maintaining a list of people in
fandom who have died since July 22, 2013.

https://glasgow2024.org/for-members/in-memoriam/
--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>> Thanks for posting this. Far too many people in fandom just
>> disappear, and we never find out what happened to them. Many are
>> alive and well, but somehow got the idea that Usenet had died.

> The Glasgow Worldcon has posted and is maintaining a list of people
> in fandom who have died since July 22, 2013.

> https://glasgow2024.org/for-members/in-memoriam/

Thanks. But that just raises (I know better than to say "begs") the
question, how do *they* find out? If I were to die tomorrow, I don't
think anyone would report my death to them. If you were to die
tomorrow, would anyone report your death to them? It would obviously
have to be someone who knew you were dead, so it couldn't be me.

Similarly with any fan who isn't living with a fan. Or who had
dropped out of fandom.

When I was WSFA's secretary/archivist/historian/webmaster, I had great
difficulty trying to figure out if any founding members were still
alive. All I knew for sure was that none of them had been active in
the club for many years. The answer appeared to be no, but with one
of them whose email address I found, I got a reply that they had just
died last week.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On 3/24/24 8:16 AM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> Thanks. But that just raises (I know better than to say "begs") the
> question, how do *they* find out? If I were to die tomorrow, I don't
> think anyone would report my death to them. If you were to die
> tomorrow, would anyone report your death to them? It would obviously
> have to be someone who knew you were dead, so it couldn't be me.
>
> Similarly with any fan who isn't living with a fan. Or who had
> dropped out of fandom.

In today's world, I sometimes wonder if it's possible that people lie
decomposing at home for months or more without anyone noticing. All
their bills are automatically paid. They may have Social Security or
other payments automatically going into their bank accounts, so the
payments don't run dry.

If I died today at home, probably no one would notice today, but I make
some regular appearances where I'd be missed. On Tuesday, a certain
friend would wonder why I didn't show up or answer her calls. On
Wednesday, the library would wonder why I missed my tech help
appointments. By the next MASSFILC meeting at the latest (I'm clerk and
send out the announcements), suspicions would be high and someone with a
key would come to my house. (I'm thinking of specific people but prefer
not to name them here.) It would get out to the MASSFILC mailing list,
and I think that would be enough for someone to submit the information
in due course to the Glasgow list.

The situation was somewhat like that for Ariel (Abby) Cinii. She was
found dead at home, exact date and cause of death unknown. Some people
checked on her when she stopped making her usual contacts.

It can take time for the news to reach everyone, especially if you shun
Facebook. I learned about filker Rilla Heslin's recent death only from
one post on Bluesky that didn't give her last name. She's on the Glasgow
list. I make a point of citing filk-related obituaries on my Filk News
Mastodon account, figuring some people might not otherwise learn.

Caution is necessary about reports, though. A few years ago a stalker
falsely reported my death on Usenet and elsewhere, as a way to hurt my
friends. The report had many inaccurate details, and of course I was
around to deny it.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Right now, there's a certain level of controversy over whether or
not SF author Donald Kingsbury is alive or dead. A Donald Kingsbury
definitely died, but was it the SF author?
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
>Caution is necessary about reports, though. A few years ago a stalker
>falsely reported my death on Usenet and elsewhere, as a way to hurt my
>friends. The report had many inaccurate details, and of course I was
>around to deny it.

Are you absolutely positive that you aren't dead? For that matter, can
I be sure that I am not? We could all be in a Sartre play, even.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
> Are you absolutely positive that you aren't dead? For that matter,
> can I be sure that I am not?

There was a movie in which the twist ending was that the protagonist
(played by Bruce Willis) had been dead the whole time, without knowing
it. I think I'd know it if I were dead. Err, ummm...

> We could all be in a Sartre play, even.

A fate worse than death.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> In today's world, I sometimes wonder if it's possible that people
> lie decomposing at home for months or more without anyone noticing.
> All their bills are automatically paid. They may have Social
> Security or other payments automatically going into their bank
> accounts, so the payments don't run dry.

I recall a recent true-life horror story in which a woman who lived
alone disappeared. Eventually her home was repossessed and auctioned
off. Only well after the new owners moved in was it discovered that
she had never left. She had been in the attic, part of its floor had
collapsed under her, and she then slowly died trapped between the
walls of the ground floor.

I also recall a long-abandoned high-rise building in which a skeleton
was found in an elevator. The good news was that this was in China.
"It can't happen here." Still, I continue to use stairs wherever
possible. I do know a guy who was trapped in an elevator for a whole
weekend, in the US.

These stories are almost enough to get me to buy a cell phone. Almost.

Disappearances were of course more common in the past. Especially
among explorers. More than a century after the Franklin Expedition
disappeared in the arctic, some of its frozen participants were found.
They were well-enough preserved that had they been found, not by an
archaeologist but by a paramedic, he probably would have tried CPR.
(ObSF: The TV show "The Second Hundred Years.")

The antarctic explorer Robert Scott may have died the same day that
the Titanic sank.

It's been more than ten years since flight MH-370 disappeared. It
still hasn't been found.

Ettore Majorana, who first predicted that neutrinos weren't massless,
disappeared decades before he was proven right.

Some claim MIT's Internet pioneer Philip Agre disappeared. Others deny
it, and claim they're in contact with him, but he's just in hiding.

The filker Bill Wells has been a fugitive for the past seven years.
If anyone knows where he is, they're not talking.

> Caution is necessary about reports, though. A few years ago a
> stalker falsely reported my death on Usenet and elsewhere, as a way
> to hurt my friends. The report had many inaccurate details, and of
> course I was around to deny it.

Something similar happened to me, except it wasn't malice, but an
honest misunderstanding. It was Keith Marshall who had died, despite
him being much younger than me.

And, due to his strong accent, I once misunderstood Yoji Kondo (aka
Eric Kotani) as saying that Fred Pohl had died. He actually said
that Fred Hoyle had died. (And now all three of them are gone.)
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On Sun, 24 Mar 2024 16:59:32 -0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"
<kfl@KeithLynch.net> wrote:

>Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>> Are you absolutely positive that you aren't dead? For that matter,
>> can I be sure that I am not?
>
>There was a movie in which the twist ending was that the protagonist
>(played by Bruce Willis) had been dead the whole time, without knowing
>it. I think I'd know it if I were dead. Err, ummm...

That he was actually (two way) communicating with one person ("I see
dead people.") slowed down his realization.

>
>> We could all be in a Sartre play, even.
>
>A fate worse than death.
--

Qualified immunity = virtual impunity.

Tim Merrigan

--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
www.avg.com

On 3/25/24 8:50 AM, Paul Dormer wrote:
> There was a case in Germany a few years ago of someone found dead and
> judging by the Christmas decorations and newspapers around, he'd been
> dead for many years. A neighbour said he kept himself to himself, but it
> turned out he'd been dead for some years before the neighbour moved in.

"Well, _that_ explains why he was always so quiet when I talked to him!"

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
> Paul Dormer wrote:
>> There was a case in Germany a few years ago of someone found dead
>> and judging by the Christmas decorations and newspapers around,
>> he'd been dead for many years. A neighbour said he kept himself to
>> himself, but it turned out he'd been dead for some years before the
>> neighbour moved in.

> "Well, _that_ explains why he was always so quiet when I talked
> to him!"

"You claim my ideas are bad, but my neighbor never disagrees
with them."
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@KeithLynch.net> writes:

> Thanks. But that just raises (I know better than to say "begs") the
> question, how do *they* find out? If I were to die tomorrow, I don't
> think anyone would report my death to them. If you were to die

I hate to be morbid, but this long-time lurker in
rec.arts.sf.written is wondering what may have happened to
Johnny1A. He was one my favorite posters, but he's been silent
since last November. I sent him email but got no reply.

Anyone know?

--
Eric Gillespie <*> epg@pretzelnet.org

Eric Gillespie <epg@pretzelnet.org> wrote:
> I hate to be morbid, but this long-time lurker in
> rec.arts.sf.written is wondering what may have happened to Johnny1A.
> He was one my favorite posters, but he's been silent since last
> November. I sent him email but got no reply.

All I know is that his real name appears to be Sherman Lee.
Unfortunately, that's a common name. I find obituaries for
lots of different people with that name.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.