I first met Tony at X World in 2019 in Sydney. We’d corresponded on the Mac Admins Slack, and via email prior. But we didn’t get a chance to meet until the auditorium in Sydney. Tony was a kind man, and an incredible conversationalist, and I remember a lot of great chats we had at X World in 2019 and again in 2023.
We lost him yesterday, and with him I lost a good friend.
We had him on the Podcast in 2021, and I had a listen to it tonight to hear the laugh of my friend. Tony was a character, first and foremost, but he was also an incredibly conscientious member of the Mac Admins Community, smart and giving, and always willing to collaborate on a solution.
Tony was the associate editor of Australian MacWorld in the early era of the Mac, and spent a lot of the early days of the Mac ensconced in its nascent history. I loved hearing him speak with passion about those times, and the pre-Mac days. He was a font of great stories, some of which are best shared over beverages.
He went by Honest Puck many places, and it belied a mischievous streak, the spirit of a benevolent trickster. But more than anything else, it belied his humanity. I will miss my friend, his laugh, and his incredible skill.
“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.”
Rest well, Honest Puck. You were a marvelous friend I got to see not nearly often enough.
