A sad hi to all Stormies,

To some of you this message contains some old news, but there is also some new. I can not possibly keep track of who knows what so here goes.

Early on Sunday morning all of us lost another Stormie of the first hour: Kurt Schwenk. Kurt, his mother Erica, his sister Mitzi and her husband William, Kurt's girlfriend Paula Barnes, her parents William and Tamsan Barnes, and Paula's roommate Gavin Stearns all perished in the Egyptian Air flight 990 disaster of the Nantucket coast.

Kurt had taken a job with Palm Computing after leaving Storm, as manager of business development, and you may have heard or read references to that in the news. Recently Kurt had been considering taking a job with the new company I am working with, NetFreight.com. It was not to be.

Joan and I saw Kurt and Paula last Thursday at an office warming party for NetFreight.com in San Mateo. Paula was just back from another one of her travels. Earlier this year, she and Kurt travelled to Nepal, Kurt was in Spain for a wedding just a couple of weeks ago, and now they were both going to Egypt for a family and friends vacation. Paula was to travel on to Israel and Turkey, Kurt was returning to attend my upcoming wedding in Washington DC.

Joan and I also spoke with Kurt on Friday night. He, Paula and Gavin were having a party to celebrate their upcoming trip. They were having a lot of fun and were very excited. Even though I saw Kurt every couple of weeks, and recently had seen him even more often, I am extremely thankful that we saw him so recently and in such good spirits. As you all know, that is what marked Kurt: always full of energy and fun. Paula was like that too, a good match.

I only met Gavin twice, and so I don't know that much about him, but he sure was nice and was a good friend of both Kurt and Paula.

I can not tell you how sad I am to have to, for the second time in my life, send a message like this to such a large group of people. I feel, however, that as one of Kurt's long time friends and early colleagues at Storm, and having seen several uncoordinated messages going around, it was necessary to bring all of you together this way.

I am deeply saddened, and my heart goes out to Kurt's, Paula's and Gavin's remaining family. Kurt is survived by his sister Heidi, his brother from New York, and his father. I believe Paula has one sister.

Kurt and Paula, and Gavin will be missed very much!

I have taken the step of sharing all email addresses in this email, something I would not normally do. It is important for all of you to be able to see who else has been informed and who I might overlooked or don't have an email address for. If I did forget people, please forward this email and let me know. I am building a list that will be used to inform people of possible memorial services etc.

—dolf

There will be an impromptu gathering at Paula's house in Los Altos on Tuesday November 2, starting at 5PM. It will be for all friends of Kurt, Paula and Gavin so feel free to join us. Paula's family has requested nobody enter the house, so it will be locked. Please use the side gates and meet out back in the garden. Bring food, candles or whatever makes you comfortable.

The address is:
436 W. Portola Avenue
Los Altos, CA

Please do not share this information with the press or general mailing lists. This way, the email addresses will remain private. It would be nice to have a gathering with just friends and we can do without hungry media hounds!