This page is for site visitors to post remembrances and thoughts at the time of Dr. Pournelle’s passing (8 Sep 2017). Your thoughts can be added using the form at the bottom of this page. Comments that are not related to words of encouragement or condolences will be removed.
Dr. Pournelle’s family appreciates those that have taken the time to send condolences and well wishes.
For those that are interested in Dr. Pournelle’s books, please see the e-books page or the Amazon page . Here’s a list of all of Jerry’s books: All The Books.
Jerry’s last post is here. The text of the eulogy given at the memorial is here. Site news is here. – Editor
We are poorer as a species in so many ways today.
Godspeed, Jerry.
Thank you for the stories.
Thank you for the knowledge.
His works helped me make the difficult transition from boy to man. He may be gone from our sight, but his works will endure.
Jerry,
You’ve taken that Big Step Further Out. Speed well, my friend! We shall all miss you, here on the Foggy Island.
/gwyneth
Condolences from Peterborough Ontario Canada
Jerry,
You’ve taken that Big Step Further Out. Speed well, my friend!
/gwyneth
Condolences from Peterborough Canada.
Jerry, you have run the race, you have fought the good fight. Thank you for sharing your life’s experiences through your excellent web log. You have touched many lives in a good and wonderful way. For that we will be forever in your debt.
Rest in Peace my web friend…
RIP Jerry Pournelle, one of the greats of SF – The Mote in God’s Eye and Lucifer’s Hammer are two of my all-time favourite SF novels. He will be sorely missed.
Jerry, you have run the race, you have fought the good fight. Thank you for sharing your life’s experiences through your excellent web log. You have touched many lives in a good and wonderful way. For that we will be forever in your debt.
Rest in Peace…
Too soon, too soon. Jerry, we miss you already.
One of a millions of fans of Jerry’s writing, both his books and his blog.
Deepest condolences on his passing. He will be missed.
My condolences to his Family. Jerry was one of my first authors as a young boy, and his books hooked this poor welfare kid and helped teach him in spite of the public schools and lack of a father.
The Birth of Fire, High Justice, and of course Falkenburg – all helped me understand civics much better than any class in my public school, or in any of my 3 graduate degrees. Chaos Manner was very interesting and I hope it remains as a memorial page, a collection of his thoughts and guiding principles.
A Giant among Giants.
“To stand on the firing parapet and expose yourself to danger; to stand and fight a thousand miles from home when you’re all alone and outnumbered and probably beaten; to spit on your hands and lower the pike; to stand fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at Kunu-Ri; to stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not rational acts. They are often merely necessary. “
There Will Be War (1983)
My deepest condolences, Jerry has entertained me and educated me since I was in my teens, the world is a smaller and duller place for his passing.
I was reading him in BYTE in the late 1980s as I started my programming career, and frankly never stopped. His collaboration with Larry Niven, “The Mote in God’s Eye,” remains my favourite hard-science fiction novel. His meticulously detailed views of politics, with a vise-like sort of Conrad Black grasp of history, kept me entertained and informed over the decades. Many fields of study have lost a giant. My best wishes to his family.
Condolences to his family and loved ones, Jerry is a real treasure and will be greatly missed.
I remember as a teenager walking to the local drugstore to buy Byte magazine to read Jerry’s column. I learned a great deal from reading his column over the years. His fiction writing entertained me and made me think. I never had the please of meeting Jerry, but I will miss him.
Condolences to his wife and children.
I met Jerry at the First West Coast Computer Faire in 1977 where I was taking the cover off of the TRS-80, the first factory built home computer, and he was reporting for Byte. I saw him at least two or three times a year from then on at similar shows from then till my last (everyone’s) Comdex in 2000.
It took me several years to discover his fiction, and I fell in love with the worlds that he (and Larry Niven) presented me. I had the great privilege of being included with both of them in the con-suite at my first Con after moving to Memphis in the 80’s where they were co-GOH because of Jerry recognizing me as a fellow geek he recognized and remembered.
He, Larry and their mentor Mr. Heinlein provided me with the inspiration that built my career in IT, realizing in a Fortune 100 company the practical reality of the first two percent of the worlds they showed me. The people I have brought along in that professional life and also shared those visions with will see the worlds they envisioned realized.
The world is much richer for having had him in it. It is poorer for his passing. But his works remain to enrich us all, and for future generations to learn from as they encounter the questions he wrestled with.
I’ll miss your wit and I’ll miss your wisdom. My condolences to your family and loved ones. Rest in peace my friend.
I never had the opportunity to meet Jerry Pournelle in person, but he had my respect within the first page of Lucifer’s Hammer (the first of his work I’d read). We are truly deminished.
My prayers are with the Pournelle family right now.