It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that Rick Loomis, best known for being the man behind Flying Buffalo, has passed.
I'm quoting Steve Crompton below:
Fate is a strange mistress. For today is August 24th and that is Rick's Birthday. Unfortunately today is also the sad, sad day that I have to tell you all that Rick Loomis passed away, just seven hours before his birthday of complications of his cancer.
Rick was an amazing person. He had the ability to inspire and nurture talented people to be more talented than they thought they could be. He had the ability to give his people the freedom to develop their own solutions to problems and then he would calmly guide them. He did this in every facet of his life, whether it was in gaming or management or even his church softball league. Maybe that's one of the reasons why so many people loved Rick and loved working with and for him and why he attracted so many talented people like Mike Stackpole, Larry Ditillio, Liz Danforth, Jennifer Roberson, Ken St Andre and so many others who went on to create entire worlds and realms -- Rick encouraged that in a way few do.
Rick sacrificed his life for a dream. A dream of wonderful, fun games and worlds of adventure. Games that inspired creativity and fun. Rick' s games were always in the end, about fun - not winning. Rick's dream will live on and we who he has left behind will do our part to carry that dream forward.
And we will never forget what he taught us - patience, persistence, fun and kindness.
That is what Rick stood for. His loss will leave a hole in our community, our industry and our hearts - but I urge you to remember to be kind to each other, be patient with each other and don't let go of your dreams. Rick never did.
The world is lessened by your absence Rick, and you are missed...I'm literally at a loss for words. Cancer is such a fucking horror. For a civilized word to be no closer to a cure today pisses me off. Not at the world. Not at science. But fucking cancer.
The Tavern's Community raised well over $400 for Rick's cancer-related expenses. I offered to match the first $200 raised and we have an anonymous donor who offered to match another $200. I'll be putting The Tavern's match in before the weekend is out.
You can still give at this link.
Prayers and tears for Rick's family and friends. The tears may be mixed with survivor's guilt.
But for the grace of God go I.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Loomis
Thank you Erik. I don't think we really had any idea how many people cared so much for Rick. I'm SO glad that he got to know that near the end. It will be one of the great joys of my life that I got to sit with Rick in the last days and read to him all the comments that had been sent in. He was was deeply touched by them and I know it eased his suffering. He was truly a good man and I will miss him every day...
ReplyDeleteI remember sitting in on a seminar panel that he was part of in the 1990s and asking a few questions about the PBM industry. I also got to talk with him at one point in the 2000s, I think at Origins and got a copy of a computer program for Nuclear War. When I bought it Rick warned me that it was for DOS and did not think it would run under Windows 95/XP but I bought it anyways and was happy to report that it ran fine, and it only cost $5 since he did not seem to think that it was really worth that much since it had been released years prior.
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