Eddie Richards

Eddie Richards was one of my first students — in fact, he was in the first group of students I had as the lead instructor of what was then the Microsoft Support Engineer program.  Eddie had the requisite sick IT-sense-of-humor and, combined with his outgoing spirit and empathetic heart, he was truly a joy to have in class and I’m sure his classmates would all agree.

Why am I writing about a student I first had in 2004?

I just received word tonight that Eddie died last week at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, apparently of cancer.  He was 40 years old.

Obviously, the news hit me like a ton of bricks.  No one seems to know anything about what happened with him, and since there will be no visitation or service, my questions will probably go unanswered.

Please be thinking of Eddie’s family as they go through their mourning.  I don’t know this for sure, but I think that his illness came on quickly and, while death is rarely easy to grapple with, sudden death at a young age is especially hard.

Eddie, you’ll be missed.