Yesterday our friend Gerg Gilbert passed away at the young age of 26.
Greg Gilbert
I have worked with Gerg for the past 9 years, the majority of my career.
For some odd reason I still remember the very first conversation I had with him.
I received a phone call from this high school kid who was starting at Westmont as a freshman after the summer.
He wanted to know if the TCP/IP chat client that he had written in C++ with some friends would work on our network.
I replied that he was hired and to come and find me when he arrived at on campus 🙂
He was 17.
After passing his first Microsoft certification exam his certificate arrived “signed” by Bill Gates and addressed to “Gerg Gilbert.”
from that day on we called him Gerg.
I took this photo of greg in 2006. I was stoked that he liked it and asked for a copy to send to a friend.
I wish I’d taken more.
The coroner has established that Greg died from complications arising from uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension.
greg was unaware of his diabetes or that it was treatable.
[update]
a bunch of us are going to go to th ojai oak pit, a favorite of greg’s for lunch at 1:00 PM on Thursday Feb 28th.
paul myers posted some photos of the lunch…
[update]
the memorial is scheduled for 11 AM on friday March 7th at the First Baptist Church of Downey.
HI Greg.
Hope you remember me…. We were partners in crime at the Warren High School library, remember? I was your assistant when the library was getting their network and computers upgraded to Windows 98. Thank you for your patience and all the knowledge you gave me. I actually learned something that time LOL. I recently learned that you have gone to a way better place and I feel so bad that I wasn’t there for the lunch and the celebration at the church. Greg, knowing you all through high school was cool. We shared classes together and even though you were very quiet I enjoyed all the conversations that I could get out of you. HAHAHA there was that one time you told me about your C++ project and I thought you were trying to catch up with school and working on a B++ LOL I felt stupid but I can now laugh at it. High School was a blur to me but I do remember my friend Greg, I just can’t remember if you took Computer and Electronic Repair for ROP at Bellflower High School on Saturdays but u inspired me to learn more about computers. Thanks buddy……… Hope you are watching over us. God Bless You, Your family and Friends.
P.S. If someone wants to contact me about growing the Gerg Fund with some of my ideas please contact me at jacevedo@setpentertainment.com
My condolences. A loss of a good person is a loss for all people.
I did not know Greg well, but we both worked on the Opie project at overlapping times. He was helpful to new users and developers alike, and his contributions to Opie and other open source projects were invaluable. I am sad that I did not get to know him better.
Rest in peace Greg.
I’m so sorry to hear about Greg’s early death. It’s our loss that we never got to know him. My prayers go to his family and friends who miss him dearly.
God must have had one hell of a computer issue to call this one home. Gerg you will be missed. Say hi to my mom in heaven for me.
Greg and sometimes Gerg –
As a co-worker at BIP, an acquaintance and a friend –
I must say I am shocked – my prayers go out to you and your family…
I’ll always remember that it was you & I who had the conversation recently about what the button on a telephone is called that lies flat once you place a receiver on it you chuckled to hear that it was a switch hook when I told you I found out.
You were so humble and such a nice person
May you rest in peace Greg
Judy
My prayers go out to greg and his family.
Emil
To the Gilbert family and the BIP family,
My deepest condolences to you all. I can remember meeting Greg back in 2002 and taken by his intelligence and skills. I had no idea until now that he was so young. His skills were that of a seasoned veteran. I know he will be missed by all that knew him.
God Bless.
Rod Wittig
Greg, sad to see you had to go. Only god knows why it had to be so soon.
Thank you for being there for us. We will miss you.
I see you
Through the smoke that’s clear enough
to let me know you’re there
but it’s thick enough so it’s too tough
to get through
the fire burns so brightly
but it doesn’t brighten my future
I lay my foot down lightly
but not light enough
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I just need to be with you
let the smoke thin
let the fire dim
so I can can be with you
I need a breakthrough
Lightning strikes and hits a tree
just as the fire comes for me
I look around
You vanished thats the truth
The fire still blazes through my ears
just as the smoke starts to clear
you’ve vanished thats the truth
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I just need to be with you
let the smoke thin
let the fire dim
so I can can be with you
I need a breakthrough
I look out the window
I see blue sky
I look out the window
I see moonlight
These days go by so quickly
But this this can’t be
You’ve vanished thats the truth
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I can’t be alone it’s too blue
I just need to be with you
I need a breakthrough
Greg, I love you and I always will. I dedicate this song to you forever. Remember, your family loves you, watch over us. Your lucky to get above before us. Never, ever, forget your life on earth, its a good experience.
Your cousin, Makenna
Greg – My heart is breaking as I read all the kind words everyone has to say about you. I am so glad I talked to you on Valentine’s day and told you that I loved you. You will be missed terribly by grandma and grandpa. You will never be forgotten. We loved you more than words can ever say and know we will join you in heaven some day. Grandpa spent all day yesterday watching videos of you as you were growing up. You were such a joy to us.
Love you, Grandma & Grandpa
Gerg.
what a shock to hear your gone.
may you be face to face with glory now….
I knew Greg from Forumopolis, and I’ll miss his posting. I wish he hadn’t died.
Greg… Like Mickeyl and CoreDump I knew him from OPIE, OpenZaurus, OpenEmbedded projects. We were talking on irc, shared same mailing lists… It is sad day for many people.
Rest in peace Greg — we will miss You.
GREG, I DIDN`T KNOW YOU WELL, BUT I DID KNOW YOU ENOUGH TO SAY YOU WERE MY FRIEND, AND I WILL MISS YOU! AND YOU WILL BE MISSED BY ALL OF US AT BROOKS , EVERY TIME I WALK PASS YOUR OFFICE I WILL THINK OF YOU ! GOD BLESS. FROM RANDY
Although my contact with gerg (he never did tell me the real story behind the name, but he answered to both), was brief, I always felt that he went the extra distance to help, and was as much a friend as an acquaintance. My heart aches for him, and for the people who worked with him in their loss. Shelly Bloom
Thanks for this really nice blog entry.
Greg was a dear (even if online) friend of 3 years and I’m still crushed to see him go. It is strange how the internet lets a lot of people live on, even still, in the digital cloud. I’d suspect he would have found that interesting.
There’s only one person that ever could have managed to play in a WoW raid and helped me through a CPU replacement crisis and that is greg. 🙁
he will be missed.
It was always nice to come down to the Ventura Campus and chat with him. Best wishes and condolences to all who were lucky enough to know him.
RIP Greg.
Rest in peace buddy,
I still have your 32MB CF card and reader, now I feel like a complete ass for not returning it sooner 🙁
I knew Greg from the OpenZaurus / OpenEmbedded community.
From the many many people working on these projects over a long period of time, his name stood out from the rest of of crowd. It is a sad day to hear he is gone forever, my best wishes go to his family and closest friends.
RIP Greg.
Gergy,
You left too early. Is it God who is greedy or is it us?
I will still never forget you showing up to work in a towel.
We’ll miss you Gerg. We’ll always remember the good times we had together.
rest easy, mate. I knew ggilbert on irc since the early Sharp Zaurus days. This is shocking and sad news.
/me not trying to have lump in throat.
…
This is a very sad day for us. I knew Greg since 2002 when we worked together on the Opie project, later the OpenZaurus and OpenEmbedded projects. It was always a pleasure to work with him as an intelligent and modest person like he was. We will miss him a lot! He was much too young 🙁
Rest in peace, Greg.
Rest in peace bro it is really sad to hear about this loss.
Greg’s still on my IM list. He’s logged in, but “Away”. What a punch in the gut.
I IMed him last night. I knew he wouldn’t reply, but in some way, it felt like the right way to say good bye.
Goodbye, Greg. We love you, and are going to miss you horribly.
rest in peace greg. Like many have said here you were brilliant! Thank you for the many laughs at Brooks. May you find rest now.
Fed
Gerg, thanks for bailing us out so many times. Via con Dios.
Thank you for posting this. I have known Greg for about 4 years through my boyfriend Gary/Chunky and we are both shocked and saddened by his loss. Although we can’t make the lunch today, we will plan to attend his funeral to say our goodbyes.
Gerg you will be missed. Thank you for always being a great person to listen, talk, and joke with.
Greg was a very dear friend to myself and many others and I know he will be missed. I am happy that I had the opportunity to meet him.
Greg,
That sucks! I really wish I could make it to the Oak Pit with you guys. Can you email me details about the funeral? I would really like to go.
Lisa
I’ve known Greg around three years now. He was a dear friend to me and I’ll miss him terribly.
Godspeed, Gergy.
Greg had more ability than I’ll ever have. He always did his thing with such calm and confidence, but he laughed easily. I would get stumped on some technical issue he’d never heard of and then 10 minutes later he’d have it all figured out. He was pretty brilliant. Rest well, Gerg.
I’m so very sorry to hear of that Greg. My condolences to you and everyone at BIP.
I remember eating lunch with him down in Ventura right before we left….oddly enough, with Gerry. I know the feeling all too well, and I am very sorry.
Sorry to learn such a bad news about Gerg. Even if I don’t know him, the things you’re telling about him are moving me.