Jeff McLeman

It is my sad duty to report that Jeff McLeman — whose work you’ve used, even if you don’t know it — suffered injuries from a very bad fall, and soon after passed away as a result of those injuries.

Jeff was a long-time Seattle Xcoder, before recently moving away, and he was a beloved friend to me and many people.

He was also a walking computer history museum — he was a little older than me, and he’d worked on a number of projects during that heroic age when people wrote new operating systems because they were needed. I learned from every single conversation with him.

There’s a NetNewsWire connection, too. He worked at Black Pixel for a while, and — among many other things — he played a significant role in their shipping NetNewsWire. And when it came back to me, he was super-happy for me, and he encouraged me frequently and cheered on our work.

He was exactly the kind of person you wanted in your corner — and it seemed like he was in everybody’s corner.

We’re all shocked and saddened, and we miss him. I miss him. Our thoughts go to his wife and family.

You’ve probably heard his voice before: he was on Debug #35: Jeff McLeman on porting kernels. I’m re-listening to it right now.