RE: Requiem for a heavyweight

Update - Laurin didn't make it. He had additional complications the night
before last, and was taken off the ventilator. He passed away about 3 AM
yesterday morning.

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 409-267-4027
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul
Nelson
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 8:15 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: Requiem for a heavyweight

A long time midrange wizard and COMMON volunteer is on the ropes. I've kept
in touch every couple of weeks with Laurin Bruck, but until his mother
answered his phone last night, I was unsuccessful in reaching him.

It turns out that Laurin had a seizure of some sort on January 4th, and has
been in ICU ever since. The seizure compounded his issues with COPD, and
he's been breathing through a tracheotomy incision with a respirator. When
he awoke from the seizure, the doctors gave him the choice of the respirator
or removal of life support.

He had just become a grandfather, so he chose the former. His mom (going on
90) said he's doing a little better, and the plans are to move him to a
rehab facility in the next few weeks.

If you spent any time behind the scenes at COMMON in the old days, you will
recall Laurin as being one of those volunteers who labored late into the
evenings processing the huge volumes of requirements to be submitted to IBM.
Keep in mind that this was when the requirements were submitted on paper and
were entered by hand via twin-ax terminals. Back in the S/36, S/38, and
early AS/400 days, those documents filled one or two boxes of continuous
form paper.

Laurin was also a wizard in the communication arena. He worked for Bechtel
Corp. and then Levi Strauss, and was responsible for making midrange machine
communicate with machines of all varieties. I remember many conversations
with COMMON attendees where I would get asked a question about some
communications problem, and would point to Laurin. 99% of the time, the
attendee came back to report, "Wow, he knew he answer off the top of his
head."

That's enough for now. If you'd like to send a card, contact me offline for
his address.

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 409-267-4027
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx