[ednog] Tim Ward

[John Kristoff]

Friends,

It is with great sadness that I bring news of Tim Ward's passing.
Perhaps many of you who knew him didn't even realize he was sick.  He
was battling leukemia for the past few years.

When I was at Northwestern doing netops he was my associate director.
He was the chief network engineer for the university for many years.
Even while associate director, he was all R&E network geek. He loved it.
Starlight, MREN, StarTap, Internet2, Lamba Rail and all that stuff.
It was Tim who helped kick start me down a similar path.  I was at
DePaul years before I joined Northwestern and I envied Tim.  I wanted to
do everything Tim did and more.  I remember when I started at DePaul I
had previously really only had significant experience with Wellfleet/Bay
gear and needed to get up to speed on Cisco gear fast.  It was Tim
who gave me a copy of one of "his" core Cisco router configs. That one
small act did so much for me.  Its over 10 years old now, but I still
have that config.  It wouldn't be the last time I learned something or
got help from Tim.  And he still had so much to teach us.

I saw less of him and his family outside of work, but anyone who
knows the Wards well knows Tim was a family man and a great dad who
loved his wife and sons more than any of that networking stuff.

Its a bit painful reading, but Tim's wife Jennifer setup a blog
detailing their family's battle.  Some additional information on
arrangements and contact information is likely to appear there soon:

  <http://lifeinleukemialand.blogspot.com/>

John