On December 19th 2005, David Terán died in a hospital in Spain after a long period of illness. During the last year, he made an incredible effort to overcome his sickness and for the most part, it looked like he would win. Because he never appeared to be put down but was always upbeat and optimistic about his future.

He was fascinating and talented developer and one of the earliest and largest contributors for Project Wonder. So his death is not only a loss to those that knew him personally, but to the WebObjects community in general.

And he was a dear friend. I miss him.

Anjo Krank

Hello everybody,

I would like you all to take a short break from the usual development issues and bear with me for a short moment.

Today I learned that David Terán, an extremely talented WO developer, a very valuable contributor to this list and the WONDER project and a friend of mine and many others on these lists, has passed away on December 19, 2005. This came completely unexpected for me and certainly to many other people because he was humble enough to stay silent about the cancer he was suffering from.

I think almost everybody who was subscribed to this list in the course of the recent years has somehow recognized him. The archives of both mailing list are full of helpful advice and answers he provided to many people. Many developers (including myself) have benefitted a lot from the discussions with him and the answers he provided.

Those of you who have had the chance to meet him at various Wocoa developer meetings and other opportunities will probably remember him as an extraordinarily intelligent, humorous and very nice person with whom it was always a pleasure to hang out.

I have had the pleasure to work with him for more than a year and I really enjoyed it and had a great time with him. I'm missing a friend and a mentor. My heart is full of sorrow and I'm still completely flummoxed. People just don't die in their 30s - there are too dreams that need to come true, too many crazy ideas, there's still so much you want to do, so many things to check out, YOU WANT TO LIVE!

In our time, there's always something important to do, and there's always a tomorrow and another time to make things right, to thank a friend for everything he's done for you. "It's just not that important now, I can do that later" - and all of a sudden, it's over. Sometimes, destiny does not wait for you until you got the "important" things done.

Keep this in mind, be grateful for the gift of life and all the opportunities and chances it gives you, tell your friends and family what they mean to you, say "thank you" when it's due and check your schedule and your priorities. Many things in life are really much less important than they may seem at first sight. Use your chances while you can.

Thanks David - for all your help, for the great time I had with you, for many heated discussions, for your advice, for the fun we had, for the hard times we had and simply for being what you were.

We'll be missing you.

Ralph Scheurer

Today (thursday 26th of january 2006 in the morning at office) I got the bad news that a good friend of me and mentor for me did die from a cancer disease recently.

David was one of the most inspiring persons for my own development as a software developer. One thing I will always remember about him is that he did not think very long about starting new things, he just simply started doing them without any fear. He did know the "Art to Start" very well - though he perhaps started a few things too much. Only a handful of his friends did know that he was suffering from this hazardous disease already for over a year, so many of us are shocked now! Especially in the WebObjects and Project WONDER scene he is/was known to many people as a very talented and smart (but also extreme or in a way "crazy") person.

Many of them will for sure miss his insightful hints, his challenging discussion and the time he took to explain things to others.

Helge Städtler

David was a very nice person and a very good engineer. I met him a few times, at Wocoa meetings, where he always gave impressive demonstrations. My condolences to his family and friends. I miss him too.

Marco Scheurer

Ich kann wirklich nicht behaupten David gekannt zu haben, ich hatte das Vergnügen, ihn im Sommer 2004 kennenzulernen. Alles was ich sagen kann ist: er war mir auf Anhieb sympathisch, und das ist bei mir nicht einfach zu bewerkstelligen.

Martin Scholtyssek

I met David while he was visiting Lisbon. We spent a fantastic time together. Riding on our motorbikes, doing some kite surfing and having good talks in the sun. He stayed some days in our office to work and we all appreciated his warm and gentle personality very much. We received the message of his death completely unprepared. None of us would have expected this. He has our deepest respect for what he was and is and how brave he faced life. He will be forever in our hearts.

Chris and the team of Ernst & Edgar, Lda.

David was a friend, a long time "Wocoa drummer" and a truely open minded and honest person.

We will miss him. Lots of "Aloha" to wherever you are, David!

Tomi Engel

Damn, he was such a great guy, I don't believe this. This has prompted me to read all my past communications with him and boy, he was intelligent and fun to talk to :-). Or should I say :-(.

Hugi Thordarson

I had the pleasure of working briefly with David when I was working in Norway, in 2002.

I found him to be a very intelligent and thoughtful guy. We shared acouple of beers in the company

canteen and discussed things WO. Sorry to hear of his passing.

Jerry Porter

I met David and the "German guys" (Ulrich, Matthias and Atze) at WWDC04 thanks to Atze. I only met him once since then, but we stayed in touch.

Even if I don't know him for a long time, I really feel like I lost a closed friend.

The only thing I could say is thanks a lot David for every moment, for your help and support, for giving me some really good advice, and more than this, for spending a couple days here in Grenoble last year. I'll be missing you too.

Xavier

I never met David other than through the mailing lists. He was a very welcome contributor as his comments were always insightful.

His passing leaves us all the poorer.

Arturo Perez

I never met David except through the lists. He was always generous with his advice and helpful. I'll miss his presence here.

Jerry Walker

I never met David personally which I hardly believe myself because he was so very present in the lists and on iChat. He really helped me out a couple of times with his genious. I hoped he finally made it to visit me here so that I could have some beer with him in return. Only recently we exchanged photos of how it looked up there at his place in Hamburg and down here at mine in deepest Bavaria. I hope he now has a chance to stop by - virtually - and realize the things he intended to do after Spain.
David, you left *way* too early!!!

Marc Gumpinger

I never met David, but I am privileged to have benefited from his intelligent participation in the WebObjects online community discussions as well as benefiting every day from his much-appreciated contribution to the Project Wonder open source software project. He was obviously a very intelligent and creative individual. I am sorry for his loss and I offer my condolences to his family and friends.

Kieran Kelleher

If you want to add your own remarks, please send an email to Anjo Krank