"Fredieboy"

[Les Smith]

I never met "Fredieboy" face to face, but I knew him. When I first
joined the list, he was already a prominent and vocal member. He was
one of those "been there, done that" techs who contribute so much to   
making Pianotech the valuable resource it is. Anyway, Fred and I
"clicked", exchanged some private e-mails, and then one day, out of the
blue, he called me. A fellow tech had run into a problem and needed
some obscure, long-out-of-production  parts for an action he was working
on. Could I help? As it turned out, I could. I was both flattered that
Fred would have asked me in the first place, and glad that I could come
through for him when he did. I supplied the parts without charge. I think
Fred would have done the same for me. Anyway, shortly thereafter, my
health problems started up, I was out of touch for a while, and when I
returned, Freddie had disappeared from the list. That all happened quite
some time ago. 

I didn't hear his name mentioned again until the other day when someone
mentioned that he had passed away. Although I never met Freddie face to
face, and obviously didn't know him as well as many of you, I did know
him. I liked him ,too. So however belated this message might be, I am,
indeed, sorry to learn of his passing and I share with you all your sense
of loss. :(

Les Smith