Sad News

I was going to write a blog entry about my thoughts on Lincoln now that I’ve returned after a long time away. I was going to write an entry about my bumbling and incompetent apartment search. I was even thinking about writing a blog entry about Zoe, the mean, elderly cat of Gerry and Marjorie.

But all that was before I heard the terrible news: David Mayes, husband of Anna and good friend, passed away last Friday. He apparently took his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning.

This is an incredible shock to everyone. Nobody, absolutely nobody, saw this coming. Even after four days of pondering it is still an incomprehensible mystery to me.

I had a beer with Dave, Anna, and some other folks on the Thursday before I left. We talked about the matrix eigenvector problem that he had been working on for quite some time, and the good news that a CS student, Doug, had finally figured out how to use the parallel computing cluster to find the eigenvectors of massive arrays. We were hopeful that we would be able to take his large quantity of spectrophotometer data and transform it into a series of usable spectra. Dave also talked about his model train project, and how he wanted me to illegally transport some creosote from Nebraska back to La Grande, just so the model trains would have an authentic smell. It seemed like a lot of trouble for a small detail, but Dave was also the guy who would scour the Internet to find authentic bolts for restoring his VWs. Dave also was a DJ at the college’s radio station, where he would play an eclectic blend of music that was unlikely to be played anywhere else. Dave also was working to build a spectrometer business based on a near-infrared spectrophotomer that he himself designed and built. He had many creative ideas for how to use his spectrophotometer: as a method for measuring protein content in grains without subjecting them to a wet chemical analysis, and as a method for instantly determining the quality of a spot weld, for instance. Dave was a brilliant guy; he had B.S. degrees in both physics and chemistry, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Washington (no slouch of an institution). When you disagreed with Dave, you wanted to make sure that you were really sure about what you were saying, because Dave had a way of incisively exposing your weakness. He also had a rather corny sense of humor; this is evident from his choice of domain names, http://www.amayesing.com/. Dave not only leaves Anna behind, but also two stepdaughters and a son, Mark, who’s about 12 years old.

So, I am now at the Omaha airport about to fly back to La Grande to attend Dave’s funeral, which is tomorrow. It is a surreal nightmare that I am even here. I take my leisurely time to drive out to Lincoln from La Grande, having on balance a pleasant time, and now I must fly back for the saddest of events.

I’m starting to tear up just writing this. I can’t believe he’s really gone.