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

[Leah Symekher]

Hello:

The San Francisco Bay Area ISOC Chapter shares the sadness of this 
tremendous loss.  Our sincere condolences to the RIPE Community and Dr. 
Blokzijl 's Family & Friends.

Best Regards

-- 
Leah Symekher
SFBay Area ISOC Chapter, President


On 12/2/15 7:08 AM, Veni Markovski wrote:
> 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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