We Miss You Carl

By Jake • October 27th, 2008 • 13 Comments

Carl Backstrom died in a single car accident early Sunday morning. He was 35.

Earlier today, the news trickled through several of our Twitter feeds, as a nurse involved attempted to find and notify Carl’s friends.

Carl was an avid APEX evangelist and blogger, snowboarder and generally well-liked, nice guy. Carl read this blog and commented frequently; we kept in pretty close contact, most recently regarding his work with Noel on OraTweet.

We are all shocked and saddened at this loss. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.

Update: Joel has spoken to Carl’s family. Watch his blog for updates. I’ll try to repost them here as well.


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  • http://www.oracle-base.com Tim…

    Wow! That is seriously bad news. What a total bummer.

  • http://stewstools.wordpress.com Stew

    I can't believe it either. Carl was such a great guy and so helpful to all us Apex noobs.

    I finally got to meet him in person at ODTUG and he was just as down-to-earth-happy-to-help-you as he was in the Apex forum. It's hard to imagine him not out there in the Ethernet offering guidance and great ideas to all of us.

  • noelportugal

    I never got to meet Carl in person, we talked on the phone several times and constantly IM'd each other. He was always helpful and was full of ideas.

    His contributions to the Oracle community are invaluable. As mentioned before he was always willing to share his knowledge with anyone. He was a great example of what true collaboration and knowledge transfer should be in our technology field. His willingness to push the envelope with the latest technologies were outstanding and his work can vouch for it.

    Carl was a great man and he will be greatly missed.

  • http://talentedapps.wordpress.com Meg

    My heart is so sad right now. My world just somehow got smaller for the loss of Carl.

  • http://thapz.blogspot.com Puneet Thapliyal

    I am shocked. I never met Carl IRL but we did have a few Twitter exchanges. He was a San Francisco Sate University graduate and his last tweets to me included this reply regarding my sister's graduation ceremony at SFSU:

    “carlback: @puneetx congrats to your sister , make sure to take some water to the one on sat. the ceremony at SFSU takes a loooooooooong time
    9:11 AM May 23rd from web in reply to puneetx”

    http://twitter.com/carlback/status/818417259

    It was indeed a long ceremony on a warm day. I took plenty of water. Thank you Carl, I never got to thank you for your tip. Rest in peace.

  • Nate

    I'm a personal friend of Carl's – we were in the dorms together at SF State and we lived together for about a year or two after college. We've been in touch pretty much every day since we met. To see the responses by all of you who met him online online reaffirms why we all loved Carl. He was a genuine person who only wanted the best for everyone. He loved learning and sharing what he had learned with others. I am grateful that I got to know him, and I am better of for it. Rest in peace, brother.

  • http://www.badgerworks.org badgerworks

    This is very sad. I also never got to meet Carl IRL. He is very much a part of a community, though, that means so much to us all IRL. Carl's untimely death provides an opportunity, I think, to reflect on how real this community is. Our focus is always on adding people to our networks and building those relationships. I've not until now considered a loss like this. As Nate says, we are all better for the work that Carl did and shared.

  • sheri

    hI this is carl's big sis….omg… foung this feed,thanks nate i see u.
    thank you all so much and our family would love to read or hear your words. we are completing plans and Carl's daughter Destany is 1st focus. I miss my by Best Friend , I miss my baby bro. this would never happen to him. o.k. so Im not so good on ths 'blog' but if you have words for carl please write them and send them to. sheriback@yahoo.com

    ,

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Sheri and Nate,
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Carl.

    Most of us knew him more online than in person. I did get to meet him back in April, and as many have said, he was a genuinely nice and good person.

  • http://stevebuchan.org/aeon Steve Buchan

    Carl was an awesome individual. A friend and a colleague. This is a great loss.

    Steve

  • stella

    Its Carl's Fiance here, this is the first I have been able to read anything online, but I am so honored that so many of you have expressed just how amazing my boy was. Thank you so. Any more stores and pictures I would love to be sent to me at stelsa5@yahoo.com
    Again, Thank you.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Thanks for taking time to drop a note. We're all very sorry for your loss.

    FYI I have spelled out your email to prevent it from being captured by spam bots.

  • siyavuş

    give carl's family condences
    regards