I decided in December that this blog is really me writing to future-me. So while I don’t want to write about this, I think future-me would want this to be written down.
Yesterday, I found out that Robert Bleeker passed away late last week. Robert headed up the online and Atlassian Summit portions of Atlassian University. AU is Atlassian’s training program.
We had worked together for around the last 5 years, but beyond that professional relationship, he was just a really nice guy. I always enjoyed hearing about his motorcycle trips with his son, and his daughter’s academic studies, and how his family was getting on. And Robert was (more recently) always quick to ask after my son Simon and want to see pictures of him.
Robert was a role-model to me of a good dad. I was really looking forward to seeing him in a few weeks at Summit and catching up, and now he’s suddenly gone.
I’m just so sad. Goodbye, Robert.
Thanks for this. I had just gone to visit him in mid-February and he gleefully walked me through his collection of lovingly restored antique and classic motorcycles. I followed up later in March and didn’t hear back until Tara informed me that he had passed away suddenly. What a shock. I’d known him since 1989 at Sybase.. I along with others that got to know him will miss him a lot… RIP.
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