C. Mark Smith
November 9, 2024
News of "Seamark"'s death, with a description of his busy life, was reported in the Tri-City Herald.
Bryce Rumbles
December 27, 2018
Donni Call
August 11, 2018
Donnie's obituary is here.
Charles Carroll Muñoz (Charlezzzzz)
February 22, 2018
Charlezzzzz was a member of the Gunroom for more than 20 years. Known to us as a naval veteran, raconteur of sea stories, poet and widely read individual with a wonderful sense of humour. He lived a long and eventful life and we were glad to have been a significant part of it. As a former naval man, he will be buried at sea.
Charlezzzzz left us with one last post sent after his death by his son.
Charlezzzzz, having sailed about and lived a damn good life, having flown blue peter for a while, has now put out to sea. Here's a poem by my favorite poet:
On his last birthday, the old man goes to the airport
Worked himself down the subway steps, cane
reaching for each lower step, hips turned so he could grab the railing, crabwise and jaunty on this stiff day, pocket full of coins for the trip.
Sat dozing in the flicker of shadows passing
through the tunnel beneath the river.
At the last stop,
worked his way, blinking, up the laborious steps
to the dazzling air, sweetness of birthday cake on his lips, went into the terminal,
stood just inside the door.
When the corridor became solid to his eyes, made the journey beyond empty newspaper racks, passed over into the waiting chamber; sat in shadow.
He looked down
at clouds, at the ocean below the clouds, walked the path between the pine trees, his bare feet soft
on the forest floor, and he found the windows of the house.
Woke, looked out at air vibrating over the runways,
and at sun glare ruffling the grass between the runways and at the harbor scintillating
in sparks and darkness beyond the westernmost runway. Watched aircraft rise to the sun,
then clenched his eyes
against the heat of that vast bright birthday morning sky.
Charlezzzzz, with thanks
Kerry Webb
November 7, 2015
There is a tribute to Kerry at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00048623.2016.1197040
Lisa Grossman
June 12, 2015
Mauricio Contreras
June, 2015
Mark Fowler
January 29, 2015
Mark's obituary, as posted by his wife on Facebook, is here.
Jim Klein
February 14, 2014
Jay Reay's obituary of "Admiral" Jim Klein is at: https://globalmaritimehistory.com/jim-admiral-klein/.The program from Jim's memorial service is here.
Bruce A. Trinque
July 19, 2013
Bruce Trinque was a very active member of the list from its earliest days until shortly before his passing. He also compiled many web-pages on his various historical interests, not at all restricted to Patrick O'Brian's world. (Links to some of which can be found elsewhere on the Gunroom site.)
An obituary is at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=115051444
Lawrence Hare
April 18, 2013
Hope Hare writes: Lawrence and I met and fell in love on the Patrick O'Brian list—where we met so many life long friends. He was born in England, and his career took him from Italy to the US. He was brilliant and wonderful man, whose accomplishments were astonishingly varied—he was a mathematician and engineer, who built everything from clocks and radio controlled airplanes to data management systems. And he loved to cook, loved to party, loved to play the piano. He died on April 18, 2013, after a long and hard struggle with prostate cancer. I miss him every day.
Memorial page here.
Gary Sims (Harbormaster)
February 18, 2013
Major Gary Sims was not only one of our most frequent, valued and voluminous contributors, but quietly undertook the smooth running of much of our backroom technology for the last several years. The Gunroom bought a bench in Gary and his wife Cindy's names at the Mary DeDecker Native Plant Garden at the Eastern California Museum, 155 N. Grant St., Independence CA. This had the inscription:
GARY and CINDY SIMS
With their love they
Made the desert bloom.
from hmssurprise.org
There is more about Gary and the bench at: http://bristleconecnps.org/newsletters/archives/cnv352.php#memorial
Herb Grossman
September 11, 2010
John Bannon (Jebvbva)
August 29, 2010
Colin White
December 25, 2008
Naval historian Dr. Colin White was a Gunroom "listswain" and contributed his insight to our discussions of the works of Patrick O'Brian.
The 1805 Club and the Society for Nautical Research have joined forces to create a substantive and long term memorial which the consensus of the Gunroom felt would be appropriate to join with. This is an annual series of lectures by several speakers on the theme of naval leadership with an intended audience of young historians and naval people, a project which Colin himself started a year of so before his final illness. Thus it is very appropriate.
1805, SNR and the Gunroom have each put £1000 into the project and have thus secured it for the first three years.
Patrick Tull
September 23, 2006
Patrick Tull was a British actor born in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England in 1941. He moved to New York City in 1973 and performed on film, television, and the Broadway stage. He was also a chef, raconteur and, in a word, memorable. He is most remembered by the readers of Patrick O'Brian for his masterful audio recordings of all 21 volumes of the Aubrey-Maturin series in complete and unabridged form. His command of the seafaring series' dialects and the general tenor of the novels won admiration from fans around the world. He was an active member of the Gunroom from 1997 until shortly before his death in 2006.
Mary Stolzenbach (Stolzi)
August 3, 2006
Marion Marchand
December 17, 2003
Donald R. Morris
December 5, 2002
Anne Chotzinoff Grossman (Cookie)
November 5, 2002