[afnog] Victor Wilson

[Alan Levin]

Hello,

This morning I heard sad news that Victor Wilson passed away yesterday.

Victor was an extremely unique and special person in our industry, he  
transcended all boundaries between 'netheads' and 'bellheads'. He was  
an engineer with Telkom and worked in plain old telecoms, but also  
understood and embraced the Internet way. He championed Internet  
standards and really understood how the Internet would change the way  
of thinking in telecoms. Victor had an eye for detail and could easily  
switch from circuit based to packet based thinking.

I know that Victor was involved with the engineering fraternity  
although I'm more familiar with his pioneering involvement with the  
Internet in South Africa. He was a founder member of the Internet  
Society in South Africa and a humble contributor to discussions and  
public positions. He always attended the AGM (if not in person he  
always made the time to join remotely). I remember a couple of years  
ago he scheduled a trip to visit his parents to co-incide with an ISOC  
meeting.

I was fortunate to have served on the founding Board of Directors of  
the .za Domain Name Authority with Victor. I remember on many  
occasions we agreed to disagree and afterwards laughed at how our  
disagreements were very healthy and to the benefit of learning for all  
of us. His eye for detail was invaluable, his diligence was inspiring  
and his knowledge was unmatched.  I learned so much from Victor and  
thank him for his kindness and sharing nature.

Victor was a keen explorer and mountaineer and I knew him as someone  
who cared deeply about the environment around him. My involvement with  
him was around the Internet governance environment and he certainly  
cared about our issues. So much so that he put them above his personal  
interests.  He pre-empted important detailed technical issues as well  
as policy issues and wherever he could he would - in his typical most  
humble way - make sure they were fixed.

I spoke with him less than three weeks ago about his view on changes  
we noticed with a new registry policy. He took a caring position as  
always.

He had been through so much in the past 8 months and we all thought he  
was getting better. He was diagnosed with Leukemia early in the year  
and after successful chemo and a bone marrow transplant, he attended  
iweek and he participated in the ISOC AGM (remotely) just 4 weeks ago.  
This morning I spoke to his wife Christa who explained that he had a  
relapse a couple of weeks ago and his health
declined very quickly. Very sad indeed, we have certainly lost one of  
our most knowledgeable pioneers.

I will certainly miss him dearly.

Sincerely


Alan