Memories of Marc Orchant

Unlike the vast majority of of people connected with Marc, I never Twittered, Skyped, or chatted with him. I perhaps e-mailed him a very few times.

I met him in person on my second day on the job at ThinkFree (where Marc would soon come on board as an Advisor), and we continued to meet at tradeshows, company events, etc. Yeah, working and getting to know each other "face to face"...how old school???

Marc was simply great to be around. When Marc arrived, the laughs were louder, the smiles were bigger, the hugs were longer (he liked to hug), and in general he brought new inspired life to everyone around him.

One night while in Boston, a group of us were out to dinner, and while waiting for a table we were deciding whether to wait inside our outside...I was asked, and honestly I didn't care where we stood, I was just happy to be out of the convention hall, and the prospect of food and wine being so near was enough to make me content. But they asked me where we should wait. So I shrugged. To which Marc exclaimed "You've got a great shrug". Somehow in that simple gesture, Marc was able to pick up a wealth of imformation. He was intuitive like that.

Of course, Marc also loved to laugh and enjoy the moment, so the "shrug" became a running gag between us when we'd meet...he'd say "So how are you doing?", I'd always shrug. We'd laugh, people would wonder why I wasn't answering him. We'd laugh.

Damn. I get laid off, and have some "away time"...and I don't find out about this until today.

Marc was a great guy. He will be missed.

When I came back to the tech industry after being away for a couple of years, I re-entered as publicist for O'Reilly Media. I met Marc at the ETech Conference in San Diego earlier this year. Not only did was he a prolific reporter on all the content at the event, but he was just plain fun to be around. Marc was a hard working guy, but never rude, abrupt, or overly stressed. He had a warm, positive energy that I will personally miss very much. Our conferences just won't be the same without him. My thoughts and prayers are with Marc's family at this very sad time.

It is really sad that you are no longer here, Marc. You are still present on the entire web and will never be forgotten. I wish his wife and family all the best.