Día de Muertos

I’m fascinated by the Mexican traditions observed on Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It’s a time for celebrating and remembering friends and family who have died.

This year, we have lost a few members of the PHP community, and on this Day of the Dead, I wanted to take a moment to remember some of the PHP community members who have died over the past few years.

If I am missing anyone, please use the comments to remember others, and leave your own remembrances for these.

Richard “Cyberlot” Thomas

I met Cyberlot first online in the #phpc IRC channel on Freenode. I saw him at occasional conferences, and I was sad to hear of his death in November 2010. He was an active contributor to the Solar framework project. Shortly after his death, Jeff Moore wrote a post remembering Cyberlot.

Nick Jones

Nick was founder of the PHP-Fusion project. The PHP-Fusion project maintains a book of condolences remembering his life and contributions.

Jeff Surgeson

Jeff was a contributor to the Aura and Solar framework projects.

Richard Lynch

Richard was one of the first people I met in the PHP community, having interacted with him a great deal on the php-general mailing list. He founded the Chicago PHP user group, and was always willing to help newcomers with questions.

Jefferson McCree Jones

I met Jefferson first on IRC in the #phpc channel. He attended the second PHP Appalachia, and I began taking him to Atlanta PHP meetings. We were roommates at a number of conferences, and his enthusiasm for technology and jovial attitude touched many. Jefferson was a great friend. I miss him dearly.

Mike Dugan

Mike was an active member of the PHP community and frequent blogger. Kayla Daniels set up a memorial fund for his family in his memory.

Alex King

Alex was a contributor to WordPress, having begun working with the project in its early b2 days. Matt Mullenweg wrote a post remembering him.