DAVID M. RELSON, 1948-04-04 ... 2013-09-21

It is with great sadness that we received word in fall 2013, several weeks 
after the fact, of David's passing.  David, besides his professional and 
leisure time projects such as bogofilter, an active archer and cyclist who went 
on longer (100+ mile) bike excusions frequently, passed away on 2013-09-21 in 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, suddenly and unexpectedly after a 74 mile bike ride, 
not far from his family home.  He suffered a fatal heart failure, and although 
he quickly received medical attention, could not be rescued.

For the bogofilter project, which had originally been founded by Eric S. Raymond,
David came onboard in the early days.  Together with Adrian Otto, Greg Louis, 
Clint Adams, and Matthias Andree, a maintainer team had formed, and David was 
_the_ driving force behind bogofilter for more than ten years and did most of 
the coordination behind the scenes, motivating contributors, being a friendly, 
patient and knowledgable user supporter, and wrote c. 2/3rds of the bogofilter 
code.  Bogofilter would not have become without David what and where it is.

David's passing has been and is a loss, for me who considered him a friend, for 
the bogofilter community and for the project.  I consider myself lucky and 
honoured to have worked with him and been something like a friend across 
continents, and remain grateful.

-- Matthias Andree


A public obituary can also be found online (as of 2019-09-08) at
<https://memorials.niefuneralhomes.com/david-relson/3942104/>
