Pete Fenelon

[makyo]

Late one evening about fifteen or sixteen years ago, while I was an undergraduate at York, I found myself sat at a terminal in Goodricke library. I don't remember exactly what I was doing - either emailing or reading Jorvick most likely, but I do remember that at some point the door slammed open and an orange-bearded, bespectacled, portly

Comments

[randomstring]

Thank you to those pointers to Pete in full flow.

[makyo]

You (and everyone else) are welcome. Reading through them again made me smile, even though I'm obviously sad and pretty shaken up about it all. Here are all 116 of Pete's Jorvick posts that I have - a combination of some I deliberately saved, together with whatever was in the folders when the VAX was decommissioned.

[ravensthorpe]

Thanks for the links Nick. I hadn't had a chance to read them before now as I got to know Pete in the post UoY era. Like I say in my post, the great thing about Pete is that everyone who met him has a store of great memories.

[makyo]

You're welcome. Thanks for your post about Pete, too. I can't remember exactly when I last saw him in person - it might have been a couple of years back. I was briefly in York for a very busy couple of days at the end of September, and I really wish I'd found time to wander over to Melrosegate to say hello. But I like your image of him trudging off into the sunset after a pleasant Sunday afternoon involving tea, cake and railway engineering.

[magfish]

wow - those salvaged posts are a trip down memory lane if ever i saw one (although i'm sure i made more than one jorvick post over the years...!). thanks for posting the link to them, nick.

spookily, the very first random post i clicked into seems to say it all:

"1994-12-15 20:10:01
*********************************************************************
Some people derive strength and motivation from others; some find it
inside themselves.

Essentially I think I'm one of the second type... and I don't see why
people who make that decision or choose to live their life that way should
not have the space to do so.

There's no problem interacting with other people, but *when it comes to the
crunch* I know that I'd rather try to face any problems alone rather than
being dependent on anyone else. It encourages self-reliance, self-respect
and self-discipline."

[makyo]

although i'm sure i made more than one jorvick post over the years...!
Ah, but the one that did survive is entertainingly sarcastic :)

In retrospect, I wish I'd saved more stuff than I did - what's on that archive is the sum total of some old posts that steer, psygnet and I happened to save, together with whatever happened to be in the folders when the VAX was shut down and we saved a copy of everything that was in the SOCS118 account at the time. If you or anyone else happen to still have anything kicking around then I'd be delighted to add it to the collection.

spookily, the very first random post i clicked into seems to say it all:
Indeed. He was a wise, funny and friendly chap, and I'm not sure what we're going to do without him. I suppose we'll have to muddle along as best we can, but I don't think it'll be quite as fun.

[rich_r]

I couldn't sum up Pete better than you and others already have. But the common theme of 'sitting minding my own business in front of a vt220 terminal when an orange, bearded gentleman walked in and started typing with gusto' also applied to me. Many evenings were spent in Goodricke snackbar over a pint or 6 of Theakstons debating the relative merits of absolutely anything.

Though I haven't seen Pete in real life for many years, he was always quick to reply with useful information on LJ when he could help. And although I may well be losing my job on Friday, I will make every effort to get across town to the funeral. Some things are more important.

[cdave]

I don't recall if I actually ran into him, but I don't think I did. I was looking forward to that day though. I enjoyed his posts, and his comments on others LJs even more.

He also made the best rebuttal to my agnosticism I've seen.