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
I knew this would happen some day, still sorry to see Jerry go. I always enjoyed reading his adventures at Chaos Manor.
I am saddened to hear of Jerry’s passing. I am surprised that I didn’t hear about it in the media. He will be missed.
Jerry RIP
Your Byte column helped and I liked you fiction. Your blog was one of the first and good reading until the end.
We miss you.
Not only do I owe Dr. Pournelle for hundreds of hours of reading enjoyment but his co-authored book FOOTFALL was the icebreaker with a coworker who did not think much of me initially. She and I just celebrated our 25th Anniversary. I hope the 4th Janissaries book will find a way to be completed. Dr. Pournelle we will miss you in so many ways…..
Doctor Pournelle will be missed.
My sympathies to his family and friends.
I respected Doctor Pournelle and that is not a common thing for me to do to others.
I put Doctor Pournelle on a similar pedestal as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and other greats of Science Fiction authors.
I respect him due to making his thoughts available, free of charge, to his fans, by maintaining this website.
Again, he will be missed.
My condolences to the Pournelle family. I grew up reading Jerry’s column in Byte magazine. While working as a Windows Technical Evangelist for Microsoft was thrilled I got to meet him via interviews he conducted at early COMDEXs. These interviews were more like a chat with your favorite uncle who knew a bit about everything and was happy to share. Jerry, you are missed.
Sincere condolences to family and friends.
I have read this column and website on and off for over 10 years after a colleague in IT passed it on.
It has always been well written and had intelligent articles which were very readable and useful to the IT profession.
Losing my own father in December 2016 who was a similar age to Jerry, I can only offer the kindness and thoughts that so many others have also posted.
In time the pain and shock fades but the memories never will and such a gentleman and intelligent man, his passing is sad but his life was clearly one that affected many and he will be remembered fondly and with dignity.
Kind regards,
Ian.
Jack Spirko of the Survival Podcast in Episode 2087 on 9-18-17 memorialized Jerry’s passing. He also read the definition of the Iron Will of Bureaucracy to his audience. That reading has had a profound effect on my husband and myself as we see this law in action all around us. I am grateful for Jerry’s wisdom to give sight to those who did not see how of the Iron Law of Bureaucracy is occurring all around us. Not a day goes by where my husband remarks he sees it in some government agency, work, or even a recent action by a charity I help. The blinders are off, grateful thanks to him.
Dr. Pournelle,
Thanks for your wit, wisdom, incomparable books, good natured curmudgeonlyness and for being an inspiration to so many. For me, you were the one about whom I wondered, “What would Dr. Pournelle say about this?” for many a world or domestic event.
Thanks for being there for so long. When I heard of your passing, I must say that it hit me harder than I expected. I had been dreading the day when I’d surf over to your site and find the sad news. But, cliche as it might sound, yours was a life well lived. You made an impact on all who came into contact with you, in person or through your writings. Thank you for everything.
Requiescat in Pace…
A great author who I ranked with RAH as an astute reader and of history and human nature. It is amazing that some issues and problems occuring in this country reflect the issues and events Jerry raised in the Falkenberg stories.
RIP and thank you for all the stories, you will be missed by so many.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Pournelle at either the 1st or 2nd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs in 83/84. His role in ending the Cold War is little known but significant.
R.I.P.
Oh what sad news. Just visited this site for the first time in a while. I always enjoyed his writings back to the Byte days in the 1980’s, if I am honest I didn’t agree with his political view but that was ok, it was good to read stuff from a different point of view.
His writing on computing was great and always enjoyable to read about his problems and issues!
RIP
and all the best for his family, don’t be too sad, he had a good long life and achieved more than most people do.
Mike in Cambridge UK.
Hour upon hour of entranced reading….that what it was like reading anything you wrote. Your name will rest easy among the giants of science fiction…Clarke…Assimov…Heinlein…Pournelle!
He saved us all.
I never thanked him.
🙁
RIP Jerry.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing your opinions, reading your books and following the events from Chaos Manor. Your SF was some of the best; your imagination and ability to bring it life will be missed.
An addendum: In reminiscing with a “chipmonk” friend, we both agreed that it was Jerry’s Chaos Manor and Steve Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar that made us such loyal BYTE readers. I used to drag my new wife (we’re still together after 31 years!) all the way across Riverside to Waldenbooks at the mall every month to buy the latest BYTE (why I didn’t subscribe, I have no idea.) One thing I truly regret was throwing out all those bulky but incredibly precious BYTE magazines in a move years ago – I just couldn’t afford the extra charge for literally tons of paper.
The one thing I wish Jerry had done was to make Chaos Manor a group blog much as Glenn Reynolds has done with his Instapundit blog, so that the wonderfully smart and insightful community that gathered there could continue on even in his absence…)
Condolences and best wishes to the family, if I have been blessed to know Jerry through his writings, you must have been blessed much more so to have had him in your lives.
I have tarried in posting on this page because I have frankly had a difficult time in marshaling my thoughts into a coherent form.
Of course I send my condolences to his family. I have followed his and Roberta’s health woes as if they were distant family members, and I always enjoyed mentions of his beloved sons and daughter. I hope and pray that God will grant them peace in the blessed assurance that Dr. Pournelle is in a better place.
But I felt I had to write more.
It was earlier this week when I realized – at a gut level – that my routine had a Jerry-Pournelle-sized hole in it. I have been surfing the Web since before it was the Internet, but as long as I can remember I have checked daily for updates of Chaos Manor. My readership of other websites might come and go, but I always returned here.
Looking back, the first thing of Dr. Pournelle’s that I read was “A Spaceship for the King” in Analog. That was 1973 and I was a Senior in high school. I’ve done my best to read everything he has written since then.
But as much as I enjoyed his fiction, it was his writings on Chaos Manor that affected me the most. When others were clamoring for war against Iraq, he stood firm in his conservative beliefs. And on other issues, he was willing to debate and consider the other side’s arguments, but unwilling to sacrifice his principles for the sake of expediency.
He will be sorely missed as a voice of reason in these times of discord.
God speed, Dr. Pournelle!
I have had the privilege of communicating with Dr. Pournelle since the days of 1200 baud modems and BIX – the Byte Information Exchange. I remember to this day his response to some snotty, snarky remark that i made to him in our first exchange. it was a simple, “So?” I must admit I had no further response.
I was, as he described, one of “the Mac tribesmen who descended with fire and sword.”
As time wore on, I collected his various works – the BYTE columnns, the Users Guides (Cromemco!) as well as ALL of his science fiction. I discovered that he had played a real and substantive role in getting the US back into space after the Challenger disaster.
His optimism and faith in the potential of the human race was always on display, even in the dark days of Carter’s malaise. “Remember, despair is a sin.”
One last anecdote.I take full responsibility for sending Dr. Pournelle several ampoules of genuine snake-oil, made as it said on the package “of the finest of snake biles.” He and I were both suffering from raging sinus infections that were simply unresponsive to antibiotics. Out of desperation, my wife secured actual Chinese snake-oil from a practitioner and it worked for me and when I sent some to Dr. Pournelle, he said that it worked for him as well.
There may be some that remember the significance of the phrase “Buffy Willow!”
Mote in God’s Eye is one of my all-time favorite SF novels. I just reread it (yet again) this past summer, combined with that long-delayed sequel.
Thanks Jerry for creating such a wonderful universe for me to swim in.