John Smout...
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neonixie-l
Aug 8, 2022, 3:46:18 AM8/8/22
to neonixie-l
It's with a heavy heart that I have to report the passing of my friend and one of our most creative and generous members, John Smout. John had been seriously unwell for some time and already outlived his doctors' predictions.
John, apart from being a long-time moderator on this group (as "Nixcited delighted") was a polymath with interests and contributions in many fields, from ancient Greek underground temples to pinball machines, music and of course, nixies.
He was generous with his time, wit & expertise and possessed a fearsome intellect - a quick look round our house revealed 5 of his clocks, not one of which was "a block with 4 nixies sticking out of it" (he wasn't impressed with the "ordinary"). His web site, https://www.clock-it.net/, shows the level of his originality - nothing repeated, all original. He was also one of the very earliest, if not the first, to come up with the idea of an "approximate clock" using alphanumeric VFDs and was always interested in the visually unexpected.
John, apart from being a long-time moderator on this group (as "Nixcited delighted") was a polymath with interests and contributions in many fields, from ancient Greek underground temples to pinball machines, music and of course, nixies.
He was a graphics designer by profession, but was also a model maker and creator, working for films such as Alien (the space suits) and major organisations including the Science Museum in London.
He was generous with his time, wit & expertise and possessed a fearsome intellect - a quick look round our house revealed 5 of his clocks, not one of which was "a block with 4 nixies sticking out of it" (he wasn't impressed with the "ordinary"). His web site, https://www.clock-it.net/, shows the level of his originality - nothing repeated, all original. He was also one of the very earliest, if not the first, to come up with the idea of an "approximate clock" using alphanumeric VFDs and was always interested in the visually unexpected.
All those that had the pleasure of knowing John will miss him greatly.
Nick de Smith
(please excuse the rather poor quality of the photos below - they were taken quickly...)
(please excuse the rather poor quality of the photos below - they were taken quickly...)
Nick
Aug 8, 2022, 3:47:33 AM8/8/22
to neonixie-l
Bogdan Paduraru
Aug 8, 2022, 8:26:30 AM8/8/22
to neonixie-l
I am really sorry about such sad news / personal lost and, on the same time, thank you that you shared his website in the community, he really had some very interesting/spectacular ideas on watch design
Nicholas Stock
Aug 8, 2022, 10:08:03 AM8/8/22
to 'Greg P' via neonixie-l
Rest in Peace John and thank you for all your efforts with NeoNixie over the years.
(Pharma) Nick (Mod).
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Instrument Resources of America
Aug 8, 2022, 11:28:16 AM8/8/22
to 'Bogdan Paduraru' via neonixie-l
My sincerest condolences to Mr John Smouts' friends and family. Ira.
On 8/8/2022 5:26 AM, 'Bogdan Paduraru'
via neonixie-l wrote:
I am really sorry about such sad news / personal lost and, on the same time, thank you that you shared his website in the community, he really had some very interesting/spectacular ideas on watch design
On Monday, August 8, 2022 at 10:47:33 AM UTC+3 Nick wrote:
On Monday, 8 August 2022 at 08:46:18 UTC+1 neonixie-l wrote:
It's with a heavy heart that I have to report the passing of my friend and one of our most creative and generous members, John Smout. John had been seriously unwell for some time and already outlived his doctors' predictions.
John, apart from being a long-time moderator on this group (as "Nixcited delighted") was a polymath with interests and contributions in many fields, from ancient Greek underground temples to pinball machines, music and of course, nixies.
He was a graphics designer by profession, but was also a model maker and creator, working for films such as Alien (the space suits) and major organisations including the Science Museum in London.
He was generous with his time, wit & expertise and possessed a fearsome intellect - a quick look round our house revealed 5 of his clocks, not one of which was "a block with 4 nixies sticking out of it" (he wasn't impressed with the "ordinary"). His web site, https://www.clock-it.net/, shows the level of his originality - nothing repeated, all original. He was also one of the very earliest, if not the first, to come up with the idea of an "approximate clock" using alphanumeric VFDs and was always interested in the visually unexpected.
All those that had the pleasure of knowing John will miss him greatly.
Nick de Smith
(please excuse the rather poor quality of the photos below - they were taken quickly...)
Ian Vine
Aug 8, 2022, 4:39:36 PM8/8/22
to neoni...@googlegroups.com
Ah! Sad news.
Pinball time!
On 8 Aug 2022, at 16:28, Instrument Resources of America <IRACO...@hughes.net> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/f53c75e9-2a25-bfbe-80e1-f0f6282fbf84%40HUGHES.NET.
Simon Law
Aug 9, 2022, 6:20:47 AM8/9/22
to neonixie-l
Such sad news, you will be missed John, thanks to all your efforts and help here and the smartsockets community.
andybiker
Aug 9, 2022, 10:21:25 AM8/9/22
to neonixie-l
I'm really sorry to hear about John.
He and I developed the approximate clock and the pinball time many years ago. He had a wonderfully creative mind and his passing is a great loss to all of us who knew him.
My thoughts go out to his family and others who knew him.
Andrew.
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