Remembering Shawn Pearce

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Dave Borowitz

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Jan 29, 2018, 10:15:35 AM1/29/18
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Dear Gerrit community,

I am very saddened to report that Shawn Pearce, long-time Git contributor and founder of the Gerrit Code Review project, passed away over the weekend after being diagnosed with lung cancer last year. He spent his final days comfortably in his home, surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues.

Shawn was an exceptional software engineer and it is impossible to overstate his contributions to the Git ecosystem. He had everything from the driving high-level vision to the coding skills to solve any complex problem and bring his vision to reality. If you had the pleasure of collaborating with him on code reviews, as I know many of you did, you've seen first-hand his dedication and commitment to quality. You can read more about his contributions in this recent interview.

In addition to his technical contributions, Shawn truly loved the open-source communities he was a part of, and the Gerrit community in particular. Growing the Gerrit project from nothing to a global community with hundreds of contributors used by some of the world's most prominent tech companies is something he was extremely proud of.

Please join me in remembering Shawn Pearce and continuing his legacy. Feel free to use this thread to share your memories with the community Shawn loved.

If you are interested, his family has set up GoFundMe page to put towards his children's future.

Best wishes,
Dave Borowitz

David Ostrovsky

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Jan 29, 2018, 1:05:23 PM1/29/18
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Such a terrible loss for the whole open source community in general and
for Git, JGit and Gerrit ecosystem in particular. I had the pleasure to work
with Shawn for the last 5 years.

He changed my view on software development and I was influenced by his
exceptional dedication to software quality. I can say that he changed how
I write software today; what comment would Shawn have on that patch set?

Gerrit Code Review will always remain connected with Shawn O. Pearce,
as indicated in this first commit in the gerrit repository:

  $ git show 23571ab1fa7fedc262d6c21510614353e9d8a4dc

commit 23571ab1fa7fedc262d6c21510614353e9d8a4dc
Author: Shawn O. Pearce <s...@google.com>
Date:   Fri Nov 14 16:56:58 2008 -0800

    Initial project setup of Gerrit 2
    
    Gerrit 2 is a ground-up rewrite of Gerrit, using GWT (Google Web
    Toolkit) for the client side user interface and a Java servlet
    based backend.
    
    Signed-off-by: Shawn O. Pearce <s...@google.com>

In the last 10 years, Shawn's vision and goal was to provide a high quality (J)Git
based code review system with a flexible workflow that can be equally used for
open source projects as well as companies and he worked with great dedication
in the last 10 years to achieve that goal.

He inspired all of us to follow him on that way.

Remembering, celebrating and continuing his life and his legacy means
just that: to move this project forward. In the last few years, Shawn's vision was
to move Gerrit to the next level, a pure Git back end and a new UI: version 3.

I would like to suggest to rename Gerrit Code Review starting from version 3 to
Shawn Code Review or just SOP-Review to forever honor Shawn's founding
role in this project.

Thank you Shawn, you will always be in our hearts!

David Ostrovsky
Gerrit Code Review Maintainer

RJ

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Jan 29, 2018, 1:08:23 PM1/29/18
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Shocked to hear the news - R.I.P . My deepest condolences to Shawn's family . 

Sad day for Gerrit community 



RJ

Brad Larson

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Jan 29, 2018, 1:43:21 PM1/29/18
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I'm so shocked and sad to hear about Shawn.  He was such a gifted mentor and leader for so many of us.  I grew so much as a software engineer volunteering contributions to Gerrit and learning from his feedback.  He was a funny guy and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with him at Gerrit hack-a-thons.  I'll really miss him.

I haven't contributed code in quite a while, so don't feel like I have any say in any sort of decision, but I like David's idea of renaming the project to reflect Shawn's leadership and vision.

Brad

Saša Živkov

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Jan 29, 2018, 6:23:17 PM1/29/18
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I am deeply sorry and at loss of words since I heard that Shawn passed away.

In 2010 I met Shawn for the first time and had great pleasure and luck
to work with him for two weeks on Gerrit and JGit. After just a few days
it became clear to me that I met an extraordinary software engineer and
person. Shawn's way of thinking about software design, quality and his
coding skills was something that I never saw before. 

I am grateful that our paths crossed at that point in time.
Shawn made me rethink and change my approach to software development.

Shawn's dedication to his work and his guidance influenced many to join
and contribute to the Gerrit project. Let us continue on his legacy as the best
way to remember him.

Saša Živkov


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Chunlin Zhang

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Jan 29, 2018, 8:45:05 PM1/29/18
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Feel so shocked and sad, thank Shawn for he created and led the gerrit project and help so many people.
I think the idea is good to change the name in memory of Shawn.

在 2018年1月30日星期二 UTC+8上午2:05:23,David Ostrovsky写道:

Doug Kelly

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Jan 30, 2018, 1:25:51 AM1/30/18
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I, much like Brad, have been largely absent from the Gerrit community in the past year and a half, but when I got word via another colleague of this post, I was shocked and saddened by the news.  As I wrote in the GoFundMe comments, Shawn was not only an amazing open-source innovator, but an excellent mentor. I was honored to have the opportunity to work with him, and realized what an amazing individual he was. He challenged me to put forth work of the highest quality, challenged my preconceived ideas about software engineering, and assembled an incredible team of individuals across the globe to contribute to the projects he guided. I’ll remember the Gerrit summits he presented at, and the great attitude he always seemed to have.

I thank him for introducing me to all of you, and I have no doubt that the community will continue to lead the project for years to come, with the same high standards we have come to expect from Shawn.  His works have taken on a life of their own, and no matter what the community does, I feel strongly that Gerrit and JGit will stand as a lasting monument to his hard work.

So, thank you, Shawn, for everything you have done for the world.  And, to all the other maintainers, contributors, and users of Gerrit: thank you for making this community what it is today.  It's been amazing to see such an amazing group of people from around the world come together to support this project, and I look forward to seeing the continuing evolution around the solid foundation Shawn has built.

--Doug Kelly

Edwin Kempin

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Jan 30, 2018, 3:36:43 AM1/30/18
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I'm very deeply saddened by the loss of Shawn. Shawn was an inspiration for all of us and he was a wonderful person and a dear friend. I made my first contributions to Gerrit in 2010 which were reviewed by Shawn and I grew with each of Shawn's reviews. It was enlightening to see the way Shawn worked. I'm still amazed how much there was to learn by just having a close look at his code changes and reading the reasoning in the commit messages which were always up to the point. I always appreciated his great attention to code quality and his clear and direct way of communication. What impressed me the most was his endless technical knowledge and his lightning-fast comprehension. I feel very lucky that I joined the project early so that I could benefit from working with Shawn over many years. I'm deeply thankful for being part of the Gerrit Code Review project and community. We wouldn't be here without Shawn and his visions. Thank you, Shawn!


Luca Milanesio

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Jan 30, 2018, 4:13:55 AM1/30/18
to Repo and Gerrit Discussion, Edwin Kempin
I have  just one way to define Shawn Pearce: a true leader.

Thanks Shawn.

Luca.


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Gaurav Negi

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Jan 30, 2018, 6:55:19 PM1/30/18
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I am very sad to learn about Shawn's demise. My deepest condolences. 
I met Shawn couple times during Gerrit Conferences. 
He was an inspiring leader, a great open source community contributor and a bright software developer. 

He might not be here anymore, but his work will live forever.

Rest in peace Shawn. 

-Gaurav
  
On Monday, January 29, 2018 at 7:15:35 AM UTC-8, Dave Borowitz wrote:

Ahmed Hosni

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Feb 9, 2018, 6:09:21 AM2/9/18
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Rest in peace Shawn, i'm deeply saddened by the news.

Wink Saville

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Mar 8, 2018, 1:29:55 PM3/8/18
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I'm at a loss for words, RIP Shawn.


On Monday, January 29, 2018 at 7:15:35 AM UTC-8, Dave Borowitz wrote:
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Velly Zhou

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Mar 22, 2018, 11:09:44 PM3/22/18
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shock me a lot about this message!  R.I.P. And best wishes to his family. Hopefully heaven knows no pain.

在 2018年1月29日星期一 UTC+8下午11:15:35,Dave Borowitz写道:
Message has been deleted
Message has been deleted

lucamilanesio

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Jan 30, 2019, 7:48:59 AM1/30/19
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It is 1 year after the terrible loss of our friend and project founder of Gerrit Code Review.
We miss you Shawn :-(

Luca.

Gaurav Negi

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Jan 31, 2019, 1:56:09 PM1/31/19
to lucamilanesio, Repo and Gerrit Discussion
Rest in Peace Shawn :-(

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Mary Rose de Vega

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Feb 13, 2019, 4:29:07 AM2/13/19
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thoughts and prayer 

zu.bruc...@gmail.com

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May 2, 2019, 1:36:20 AM5/2/19
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yeah ... ... I found I have no chance to work with him anymore this life. So sad and lost when I realize this has become true.  

Luca.

nitish kumar

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Sep 21, 2019, 7:59:30 AM9/21/19
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Rest in peace Shawn

Sumeer Sinha

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Sep 25, 2019, 9:30:00 AM9/25/19
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RIP

Devansh Varshney

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Jan 30, 2024, 2:16:21 AMJan 30
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OMG this just made me sad. I just came across to his one of the and started to search about places to follow him online. Rest In Peace.
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