[Chapter-delegates] Sad news from the Netherlands / RIPE

[Veni Markovski]

It's a sad day today.
One of the pioneers of the European Internet has passed away.
https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/tribute-to-dr-robert-blokzij-1943-2015


  Tribute to Dr. Robert Blokzijl 1943 - 2015


Dr. Robert Blokzijl, RIPE Chair Emeritus and founding member of the RIPE 
community, died aged 72 on 1 December 2015. If you would like to leave a 
message of condolence or your own memory of Rob, please post it at the 
end of this page 
<https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/tribute-to-dr-robert-blokzij-1943-2015> 
and we will pass it on to his family.


The Internet community has suffered Rob Blokzijla sad loss as the man 
who led RIPE during its first 25 years of bottom-up, consensus-driven 
collaboration and decision-making died at his home in the Netherlands.

As one of the founders of RIPE in 1989 and the Chair of the RIPE 
community for 25 years since then, Rob Blokzijl personified all the 
attributes that have seen the community grow into such a positive force 
for bringing together those who care about the development of the Internet.

Rob’s roots were in the high-energy physics community, and earlier in 
his career he worked at the High Energy Physics Institute in Amsterdam 
and later at CERN in Geneva. He helped to build the computer networks 
that were essential for that branch of science. His work in this area 
would inform much of his contribution to the burgeoning IP networking 
community in Europe in the early 1980s.

Over the past 30 years, Rob has established a global reputation as a 
leader and a pioneer, respected for his work with organisations such as 
RIPE, the RIPE NCC, AMS-IX, ICANN, Nominet and NATO.

In 1989, Rob was co-author of the RIPE Terms of Reference, which stated, 
“The object of RIPE is to ensure the necessary administrative and 
technical coordination to allow the operation and expansion of a 
pan-European IP network.” In his role as the Chair of RIPE, his vision, 
expertise and effort were essential for the tremendous growth and spread 
of this world-respected forum, which acted as a model for many 
subsequent community organisations.

Rob was also one of the key figures in creating the RIPE NCC (RIPE 
Network Coordination Centre), the body responsible for managing the IP 
address space in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia and 
coordinating the technical community in those regions. The RIPE NCC was 
the first Regional Internet Registry in the world, and this model has 
become the accepted way to organise the Internet infrastructure in a 
more regionally specific, responsive and efficient way.

Rob had a particular talent for being able to engage with all elements 
of the Internet community, from government and experienced operators to 
more recent members of the RIPE community to whom he could impart his 
insight and wisdom on the issues of the day. He brought much common 
sense to otherwise complicated discussions in the Internet community, 
and his mantra of “keep it simple” is one that he will be remembered for.

Those who knew Rob personally will miss his sense of humour. He was a 
storyteller with an outstanding ability to recall and relate the events 
from his working life, which not only amused his listeners but also 
enlightened them and informed their discussions. The recent RIPE 71 
Meeting was the first not to be attended by Rob due to his illness, and 
so it was the first where he was not to be found with a cigarette and 
glass of wine in hand, enjoying the company of those who typically 
gathered outside the venue entrance to talk about serious matters in a 
very non-serious way.

His contributions were often officially recognised, notably in receiving 
Dutch royal honours by being awarded with the title Officer in the Order 
of Oranje-Nassau in 2010. He also received the Jonathan B. Postel 
Service Award in 2015 for outstanding contributions in service to the 
data communications community. Since standing down as RIPE Chair in 
2013, he has enjoyed the title RIPE Chair Emeritus.

To many of us in the RIPE community and beyond, Rob was a mentor, a 
friend, a trusted confidante and always the voice of reason. His legacy 
stretches from the physical networks the Internet is made of to the 
community he built and the wisdom he injected into that community’s 
make-up from the very beginning. His legacy will continue to be felt as 
the community continues to grow and its participants often ask 
themselves, “What would Rob do?”

You can leave your own tribute to Rob below


    Biography

Robert "Rob" Blokzijl was a founding member of Réseaux IP Européens 
(RIPE), the European open forum for IP networking. From its foundation 
in 1989, he was spokesperson for this forum until 2014. He was 
instrumental in the creation of the Réseaux IP Européens Network 
Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) in 1992 as the first Regional Internet 
Registry (RIR) in the world. Prior to this, he was active in building 
networks for the particle physics community in Europe.

Rob graduated from the University of Amsterdam (1970) and holds a 
doctorate in experimental physics from the same university (1977). He 
was employed by the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NIKHEF) in 
The Netherlands.

Rob was also selected for the ICANN Board by the Address Supporting 
Organization. He served on the ICANN Board from October 1999 until 
December 2002.

He was a member of the Board of Nominet, the organisation that serves as 
the registry for the .uk domain, one of the largest country-code Top 
Level Domains (ccTLDs).

At the RIPE 67 Meeting in October 2013, Rob announced his resignation as 
Chair of RIPE after being in the position for 25 years.

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