Sunday, July 12, 2020

Ol' Remus



We note via comments here that Ol' Remus, of The Woodpile Report, may have passed away from a recently diagnosed cancer.

We have no way to confirm this news, hope it isn't so, and if that be the case, regret the error.
Whether it be true or no, we remain saddened at the ongoing silence of his blog.

He seemed to us - and, we suspect, to many others - a delightful and well-informed gentleman, sophisticated yet down-home sensible, who kindly took notice of this blog in its relative infancy, and found our offerings notable enough to link to and/or feature there, on many occasions.

Words cannot express our thanks for his attentions, but we hold back nothing in stating that anytime our own brain droppings online merited inclusion on his weekly page, we felt like a kid who had hit a home run or brought home a report card of As.

Whatever the cause of his absence online, we feel ourselves, and the rest of the world, to be much the poorer for the silence left in its stead, and are second to none in our regard for the wisdom formerly free by the week at his site.

And our only solace, if he has indeed left this earth, is the hope of an afterlife, where an online acquaintance might be continued someday, face to face, and where he and his recently departed wife are even now reunited.

23 comments:

  1. https://theferalirishman.blogspot.com/2020/07/ol-remus-of-woodpilereport-has-passed.html

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  2. He was a righteous gentleman of the old school. His wisdom will be sorely missed. Here's hoping he is just taking a bit of a hiatus and will return with pearls soonest.

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  3. thanks,,,I too, noticed his silence. We hope he is at peace....

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  4. If this is true the world is a darker place indeed. Fair winds and following seas Sir.

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  5. Ol' Remus had the ability of infuriating me with his content, while calming me with his presence.
    Kind of like Fred McMurray's character on "My Three Sons".

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  6. I was fortunate enough to correspond with him a few times, and a finer example of a man would be very, very difficult to find.

    The world is a lesser place without his wisdom and wit.

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  7. This may come from an unconfirmed comment at my place back on July 10 which read:

    friend of wife July 10, 2020, 6:49 PM
    Remus passed away on July 8th. He was diagnosed with cancer 3 weeks prior.

    This is the only direct statement I can find and I cannot CANNOT confirm that this is the case. The "friend of wife" left no email address visible to me. The thread is

    http://americandigest.org/mia-remus-and-the-woodpile-report/

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  8. I came here serendipitously after checking his blog again—for the fiftieth time in the last three weeks—for any sign of activity. What a loss, if true! God bless Ol’ Remus! Things will never be the same.

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  9. If he is truly gone, he will be deeply missed. His musings have had a profound impact on me over the years and the few exchanges I've had with him are treasured jewels in the crown of my memory.

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  10. A sad day to hear of this. But I think his words and his thoughts live still in our hearts and no finer a tribute to a man than that can be had.

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  11. Couldn't be said better. I just saw the news on another site.
    -JW

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  12. I will miss his wisdom, but someone with more computer skills than I needs to save the Woodpiles side bars. It's information needed to as Sun Zhu would say understand the enemy and thus be able to defeat him.

    Old Remus was a great friend I never met. But now he's with his beloved wife and free of pain. I will see him on the other side someday.

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  13. This saddens me (for all of us) if true - he was a calm and steady hand of an earlier age and will be missed (the above reference to Fred MacMurray is not off base). But possibly for him, with his wife passing earlier this year, it may be a homecoming.

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  14. Like Ann K, I kept checking his page daily to see new posts. Tuesday mornings will never be the same. Thanks, Remus, for all the knowledge you shared and the things I learned from you. I hope your reunion with your wife was all that you had been hoping for.

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  15. He certainly kept a "gray man" profile, even his website was thru a proxy to GoDaddy.

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  16. "Like Ann K, I kept checking his page daily to see new posts. Tuesday mornings will never be the same."

    Ditto.

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  17. His website confirmed the sad news today. He is gone and the world has lost a wonderful person.

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  18. Well here’s hoping that Ol’ Remus found a crowd that he absolutely wants to be part of now, along with his wife.

    God speed, Remus!

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  19. Sadly it is true, ol Remus has left this earth. A library has been lost and silenced. Someone has announced it on his page.
    http://www.woodpilereport.com/

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  20. I am heart broken. I exchanged a lot of emails with him, and he was a very down-to-earth, common sense kind of person. We could use about 100 million more like him.

    RIP, Remus, I know that you're looking down on us - from a cloud that is rather devoid of crowds of similar good souls. Sincerest condolences to his family and close friends - you've lost a real gem of a human being. But please try to be happy that he was here for as long as he was and that you got to know him so well.

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  21. Just found out - I've been staying away from many blogs that I usually frequent as of late, mainly because I've been busy. I am very sad - he was a genuine good egg, both on his blog and off of it (he and I exchanged many emails over the years). Condolences to his family and friends.

    With regard to losing he library of posts, perhaps an event like this can be turned into a positive by having a lot of preparedness and patriotic bloggers find a way (individually or in groups) to preserve their articles and the oftentimes valuable comments for posterity. I know that many operate on the financial edge to begin with, but I would hope that something can be done - it is bad enough to lose the people involved, but to lose a large chunk of what they did to help others is borderline criminal when we have time to try to plan around it.

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