Andrew Jacobs (BitWise) has passed away

[Mike Naberezny]

I'm very sad to report that we have lost Andrew Jacobs (BitWise), a major contributor to our forum. His passing was reported on the email list of the Reading Hackspace, where he was a director. He died on January 8, 2021 of complications from COVID-19.

Andrew joined the forum in 2004. In that same year, he also contributed his Hexadecimal to Decimal routines to the site. He remained continuously active on 6502.org in all the years following, having made just shy of one thousand quality posts here.

When he was not lending his expertise to the forum, he worked on many projects. He made too many contributions to list them all, but his work included emulators, SBC projects, his own cross-platform macroassembler, and reference materials to help others. He was recently working on a monitor for the WDC W65C02SXB SBC. See his website, GitHub profile, and posts on this forum.

We will sorely miss Andrew here on the forum. We send our deepest condolences to his family.

[jds]

Thanks for letting us know Mike. Very sad news.

From where I am in New Zealand we have watched on from the sidelines, mostly insulated from what many of you are going through with COVID-19, and the impact on your lives. Andrew's passing makes it all the more real, especially so, as his age is not that different to my own. I urge everyone to take as many precautions as they can to avoid catching COVID-19.

I've just been browsing through Andrews GitHub and I think I could make use of his 816 emulator, the code is very clean and easy to follow, I think it's good when people can leave contributions that outlive the time they have to put in to them. The licensing appears to be very clear too. I also was reminded that he had a couple of R6541Q's, apparently purchased by accident when he meant to get R6501Q's. They are quite rare and are something I wouldn't mind finding myself one day.

[BigEd]

Quite a shock to hear this, and a great shame. We lose a fine member of the community here, and his family, friends, and other communities lose too. My commiserations to all. Thanks for posting, Mike. The tribute and thread on Andrew's local makerspace forum is very touching.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Dear Lord! I am so sorry to read this. May Andrew rest in peace. This is really sad.

[barrym95838]

He was a productive and creative engineer with a generous and thoughtful disposition. I will cherish his contributions to this world, and strive to honor him in my own. Farewell, fellow warrior!

[JimBoyd]

Yes, very sad news.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Is there some way we could create a group condolence card that all of us could "sign" and forward to Andrew's family? I think it would be a thoughtful gesture to let them know that we held him in high esteem and that things aren't going to be the same around here with his passing.

[teamtempest]

[MichaelM]

I was very much saddened by the news of Andrew's passing. I really enjoyed his posts, and very much looked forward to his comments. I appreciated his obvious mastery of the subjects that he posted on in this forum.

Like many of you, I will certainly miss his collaboration with us on this forum.

[dclxvi]

Sad news indeed. Here's a thread he started that turned out to be fun and interesting. One of my favorites.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1206

[RichCini]

Oh, my, this is very sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Ugh.

[Martin_H]

I am sad to hear this and my condolences to his friends and family. He was helpful to me on several projects and I enjoyed reading his posts on other topics. I will miss his presence on the forum.

[unclouded]

I am saddened by this news. I used to see the apple wearing a bowler hat on the forum and knew I was in for a good post. Andrew touched my life.

[resman]

This is so disheartening to hear. His contributions were always of such high quality. He was one of the main reasons I enjoy this site so much.

[Windfall]

To me, he stood out as a solid contributor. Very sad indeed.