Rest in Peace, Guido Sohne

Sounds good, I just sent the email to Calvin and put this link on some of his Flickr pics. I have also sent out a bunch of emails to people on my friends list to this article.

Well now I feel like a true spammer, I am not sure if I have ever used those mass mailing lists, but heck, its for a good cause ☺

If anyone is interested in photos, plus well a little linking also to this article, here are a few.

Guido's

Guido nice pic

Guido at Party

Guido very distinguished

Guido's Decoder Shirt

Guido at Party

The link above is bad. Sorry,

Use this one

I just received a email from a fellow coworker of Guido's that also is a Microsoft employee that has known Guido since 1998. I also made a comment on site and linked to this article so just in case you see some "unique names" you can blame me. He sounded like a wonderful person, I cried reading some of those comments. They were hard. A person like that does not come around often.
Thank you ERIC OSIAKWAN for a beautiful article.

A tribute to brother Guido - You have a memorial in time

Guido was a great friend and work mate since 1998 when we met in Ghanaclassifieds. We connected on our first meet and became good friends. I learned a lot from Guido in understanding the technology world and we both were convinced that we could make great changes in this world with or without college education.
Two years on, we were close and Guido taught me one thing, if he decides to do something he would get it done, sleep not withstanding. One habit I soon took to. We worked on getting one of the largest Banks in Ghana, SSB now SG SSB online and introduced them to the need to move their banking online.
Guido was so committed to the project and got such a good work done, when we first made the test presentation to the bank management, they were so excited and made payment right away on their SSB Sika card.
I have being with Guido through the thick and thin, he had such a strong intellectual ability to argue issues and I always enjoyed doing great intellectual exchanges with him from the real world into virtual space and back. Sometimes the exchanges would degenerate a bit into personal elements but when we met physically afterwards we would apologies to each other and continue as great friends of old - a sense of maturity rarely seen.
The only way to defeat Guido is intellectually but he would come back again and again and so was his code writing that the Sema Code he developed is recognized today globally. I had being exploring a base to carry my African vision and Kenya kept calling to me and not too long Guido came along under the auspices of Microsoft Platform and Strategy Manager.
After a couple of meets, he insisted I come and share his house with him so I finally decided to stay close to a brother but he never told me he was leaving to eternity that soon.
Guido, you have fought a good fight of faith and you would be remembered for your "strong intellectual depth".

Rest in absolute peace.

May peace be with you Guido. God Bless

Sadly, I never had the opportunity to know Guido. However, he was so vital, gifted and respected in the memories of other Viners that I felt a vicarious kinship with him.

What a tragedy! Each and every one of us--through personal or anecdotal familiarity with Guido--is feeling the devastation of his loss.

Thank you for this, Djehuty. You are a true friend.

I'm posting a remark to Guido by Djd from an email he sent on hearing the news:

peace and a place where all sorrow and sighing have fled away

Leaving a comment on the above article has provided me with some very nice emails from Africa, Guido clearly has many very close and loving friends. This link to a article on the BBC World Service I just received and I found to be very interesting, so that I don't "thread-jack" I am only quoting a small section of it.
Ghana: Signs of Software Success

You are on holiday in Ghana's capital, Accra. Walking down the street, you wonder what that tall building with the clock tower is to your left. On the gatepost, you see a little black and white drawing - a calling card from one of Ghana's leading software developers, . Guido Sohne.

"African content needs to take its place in the global constellation - so tag something today."

Guido Sohne, .software developer

June 2007 edition of BBC Focus on Africa Magazine. By Alice Lander

From Eric:

Please let Giudo's family know that I have heard about his persona, intelligence and concern for justice on Newsvine many times and wondered if he ever would return, so that I could learn more about him. I suspect his internationalism made him the wonderful person he was. Please let Newsvine know that his picture shows a kind face and a good heart. May he rest in peace. Long live Guido's ideas and compassion.

I've just seen a link to this article on the UK Ubuntu list, a sign of the widespread respect there is for Guido in the open source community.

Another email from Africa.

Guido Sohne

Have you ever thought that death would come through email? I just heard the saddest and most shocking news today: a very good friend of mine, Guido Sohne passed away. I hadn't seen him in years since I left Ghana, but every time he came to SA, he'd give me a call and we'd talk about various issues on the phone. He's always told me that I had to learn how to relax and take life as it comes. He had always been a reference point for me, a very unique individual and with whom one could enjoy any kind of discussion.

I still cannot believe he's gone. So long Guido.

Jean-Paul

And more mail from Africa, from a coworker.

This has come as awful news and left me in a wretched state. Rest in peace Guido. Although I am Sandra's contemporary, I got to know Guido from a very young age in Labone when I was a regular visitor to his house. We would enjoy games such as hide and seek, catch-me-if-you-can, climbing trees, hunting tadpoles etc. Guido had a great sense of humour and loved to tease me expecially about my fondness for his sisters! One thing about Guido that I really respected was his independent mind. He questionned everything and accepted no idea without intense analysis - a feature of many a great intellect in history. He was very much a free thinker a feature not unrelated to his passion for free, open source s/w. At GIS he was an extremely bright student tending to come at the top of his class. A just reward for this was a place at Princeton. His personality and intellect were so powerful that he will live on in the minds of many who knew him as well as in cyberspace.

Guido - you will never die!

Kwamena

I just received this email from Eric Osaikwan concerning the funeral for Guido.

Guido's Funeral Arrangements on Friday, June 6 are as follows:

Pre-Burial Service - 8:30am followed by File Past, Tributes,
Life History and Burial Mass at the Christ The King Catholic Church, Cantonments, Accra.

Burial: Osu Cemetery, Accra.

Final Funeral Rites/Reception: Christ The King Parish Hall, Cantonments, Accra.

No wreaths.

On behalf of the Sohne Family, I would like to thank you for your continued support.
Sandra

Eric is the person that wrote the original article A tribute to brother Guido - You have a memorial in time that was a beautiful tribute to what sounds like a amazing person.

Wow...I have added many new friends thanks to Guido.

I just got this in today from Jayalakshmi Chittoor he also posted this to the article "A tribute to brother Guido"

This news is very shocking.
Ms. Dorothy Gordon and I talked about Guido at Kuala Lumpur, when she shared about this very devastating news.
I believe Guido Sohne was not only a champion of open philosophy coupled with brilliant mind, he was also an inspiration to people in Asia.
Our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and network of supporters from India.
Jaya

and he wanted to draw a clear line between his personal on-line reputation and his professional on-line reputation

I asked in NewVine why Mr. Sohne was leaving and he replied in a Contact e-mail the reasons, he felt that his on-line reputation suffered and he was very hurt.

I assume the family will have an autopsy conducted, Steve, to try to find the cause of death. Unfortunately though, young men like Guido do die of natural causes, more often than we'd like to think.