Loading ...Today we received email from Donnie Grimes informing us that Gary Utter, a long-standing figure in the Apple II community and one of the founders of Syndicomm, passed away this morning after a long illness that many of us had watched him valiantly fight for many years. Please read on for the entire message from Donnie. We have enabled comments for this message.Folks,
It is my sad duty to report that an old friend of the Apple II community, Gary Utter, has passed away. Gary has been sick for a long time and has valiantly fought against many different medical situations the past several years. He had not been feeling well for the past several weeks and seemed to be progressively feeling worse and worse.
In the wee small hours of this morning (3/4/04), Gary lost his struggle. I am currently with his wife Susan and things are all set for the time being.
Arrangements are as follows:
Calling Hours:
Saturday 3/6/04 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Sunday 3/7/04 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
Funeral:
Monday 3/8/04 approx: 1:00 PM at the Funeral Home
The funeral home is the Leo M. Bean Funeral Home located at 2771 Chili Ave. Rochester, NY 14624. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the ChilI Volunteer Fire Department, Rochester, NY 14624.
I, for one, am going to miss Gary a great deal. It was he who initially interested me in computers and got me involved in the OnLine world, back in the old GEnie days. One of the first things he ever told me back in the 70′s when we first met, was “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”
Gary, you didn’t have to prove it to me. I would have let you win. I miss you.
Donald A. Grimes
If there ever was a true A2 Lamp.
No matter how dire the situation, Gary had words for it that would make you
laugh.
That’s going to be a hard job to fill …
Gary will be missed.
Tony
Gary was a heck of a guy. A good and fun guy with a sick sense of humor
you had to laugh at. He played a key role in the Apple II world — more so, I
think, than many people realize. His loss will be deeply felt.
—
Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd
A2Central.com Editor
I did not know Gary as well as many others, but I respected his dedication to
the platform and the community. I am saddened by his passing.
—
Steven Weyhrich (IX0YE)–(
Apple II History
http://apple2history.org
I only had the pleasure of meeting Gary onces in person. That was at KFest 2001. He seemed to be a great guy who enjoyed having fun. I knew he had been ill for a long time but this is still a very sad day. My sympathies to his family.
Mark Percival
Hello All….
Some of the names here are familiar. I hope you remember me as well. GEnie was a LONG time ago.
Gary Utter first forced his way into my life many years ago. I was experimenting with an Apple II BBS system here in Rochester and he left a message inviting me to his house to talk about the Apple II. He was my friend from the first day. Later, he asked me to write the Proterm version of the CoPilot scripts for GEnie. We became better friends. He taught me a lot about perspective and character.
I saw Gary only every year or two as life moved on. That didn’t matter. He remained my friend.
I have no idea where Gary is today but I guarantee he’s trying to maintain control of the situation …. and no doubt making progress.
Bill Goosey
aka goose
While on the service it would appear that Gary and I had little in common other than chronic disease and computing, we had lots we shared. I visited Gary and Sue and stayed with them this past summer before my yearly track to KansasFest, and I (and the rest of us) were fortunate enough for the Utters to come this year, where I think Gary got quite a kick out of spending some time with Woz in person.
Gary will be missed. Hell, I already miss him.
Hi, Goose. Long time no see.
I’m sure there’s a power struggle wherever Gary is today — and he’s probably
winning.
—
Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd
A2Central.com Editor
I too was a long time friend of Gary’s like Goose. We met on local bulletin
boards and of course Gary sucked me right into the Apple II world. I spent
many fond years on GEnie in the A2 forum. I’ll miss Gary. He was my
computer mentor to this day.
Bob Cherry