• Bluelight
    Shrine




    A memorial
    to Bluelighters
    who have passed away

Rest In Peace Bill (thanks to all bluelighters for their support)

I've been meaning to post something here ever since that I heard, but I've not really been able to find the words. I recall that the first time I met Bill, that he said that he didn't post unnecessarily and waste bandwidth. I suppose that I was concerned that I'd be doing the same.
But yeah - thinking about it, I still wanted to throw in my .02cents. Bill, as said so many times before, you'll be sorely missed.
I remember a discussion, on having a wish granted, what he would wish for, Bill wished not for world peace, but seedless fruit.
Bill, I hope that you've got your seedless coconut.
RIP
 
Bill's father has passed on some information from the coroner regarding Bill's death. I have copied his email below.
We have found out a little about Bill's death.
It seems likely that it was the result of  an unlucky accident.
It seems that after  climbing to watch the sunset that he  simply tripped forward down a steep embankment of only 3 or 4 metres.
Wire grass and his shirt, caught around his neck and fractured his windpipe. It seems likely that he died instantly.
Click to expand...
 
From your oldest registered member - perhaps.
A thankyou to Bill's dance scene Mates and Loves. Your thoughts and kind kind words have helped us a lot.
Bill left instructions for his funeral in a journal.
It says in part -
* No cremation! I prefer to become worm food.
*I apologise in advance for the expense...
Tombstone: a granite boulder from the Victorian alps, obliquely cleaved, polished and inscribed thusly:
"Here lies poor master Bill;
Gone to meet his creater. (sic)
There's no need to feel sorry for him-
You'll be joining him later."
We will meet his wishes.
A simple and brief private burial will take place next week at the Highton Cemetery in Geelong.
Any very close friend who would like to attend please email me for details.
Bob and Marlene and Laura.
 
Even after his passing, Bill is still making me laugh !!
Love your work Bill - Rest in Peace
[ 09 April 2002: Message edited by: Kandeman ]
 
Just to let people know that a long obituary for Bill is in the AGE today (Friday). I can't seem to track down an electronic version of it from the website for the AGE but...you can run out to your local milk bar and pick it up.
It describes some of his accomplishments and why we all thought he was so special :)
 
The woman who wrote Bill's obituary in the AGE very kindly sent me a copy of it. I include it below.
WILLIAM McGOWN PEDEN
Extreme software engineer
24-9-1968 - 17-3-2002
Bill Peden was a Renaissance man who, for those that knew him, lit up the last years of the 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st.
His talents were extraordinarily diverse and his interests broad, ranging across information technology, academia, sport, the arts, electronic music, philosophy, food, wine and conversation.
He was at once self-effacing and a huge personality, who loved intellectual stimulation, rowing, dancing, debate, his friends and his cat, and who earlier this year meticulously calculated to the hour (and celebrated) his 33 1/3 birthday.
In professional life, many describe him as the most brilliant software engineer they have encountered. He had a superb mathematical mind that could solve problems and think abstractly, logically and laterally. But after hours, and particularly on the dance floor, he was just 'Bill'.
He died accidentally after attending a music festival in Gippsland. A celebration of his life this week drew some 400 people to the Chapel of All Saints, Geelong Grammar School, where in 1986 he was senior prefect and dux of the school.
This was predominantly a gathering of young people. Dreadlocks, T-shirts and skinny bare midriffs mingled with suits and ties. There wasn't a lot of grey hair. Eulogies were given in American and Swiss accents as well as Australian, for like so many of his contemporaries, Bill's work (and his inspired, irreverent use of the Internet) made him a citizen of the world even though he lived in Melbourne.
Bill Peden was a standout performer at everything he did. Growing up in Geelong, he crawled at four months, tried to fit a power plug into a socket at six months, used books for building blocks, and wrote his first computer program at the age of eight (his father, a professor of electrical engineering, had a personal computer at home as soon as the technology was invented).
While at school he ran 400 metres in under 50 seconds, reached the finals of the Australian Maths Olympiad, took up - and quickly became proficient in - the bassoon, rowed in the winning Head of the River crew, and played lead roles in 'The Crucible', 'West Side Story' and 'The Pirates of Penzance'. For the last, he memorised the fiendishly difficult Major-General's "patter" song inside 30 minutes.
In 1987 he began medicine at the University of Melbourne, where he was at Queens College for a time, then switched to accounting, intending to become an actuary. But the lure of the sport where one faces backward in order to move quickly forward proved irresistible. Too small to succeed in heavyweight rowing, he dieted off 10 kilograms and represented Australia internationally as a lightweight in 1990-91, finishing fourth at the world championships.
Bill completed his B.Sc. (hons) in 1995 with emphasis on computer studies and mathematics then began work as a software engineer, working 24-hour stints and making rapid progress. He spent six months in Colorado in 1995-96 as one of an international team assembled to deliver a delayed project on time and within budget. This time away confirmed his ability to find a way forward that had eluded others, rekindled his delight in extracurricular activities - particularly skiing and disco dancing - and encouraged him to reassess his priorities.
In 1997 he joined the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (A2 I2), where his skills, broad life experience and capacity to think laterally were greatly valued. In a dry, laconic manner he would put on the table strong technical opinions, kindling the kind of debate he relished but ready to listen to others. Bill was a challenger, always seeking an alternative - and perhaps better - solution. And he was generous when workmates needed a helping hand.
He kept a detailed journal - another manifestation of looking backward while seeking to move himself forward. He returned to his much-loved Melbourne University Boat Club as rower, coach, Saturday morning coffee-maker, and gourmet cook for uproarious dinner parties - the piece de resistance being crème brulee, caramelised at the table with blowtorch and goggles. He started delving into philosophy, reading ever more widely, and kept up his subscriptions to the ballet and opera. He was delighted when long years of attending the opera netted him a seat in the middle of the fifth row. "You feel more a part of the action when you can see the band," he said.
From 1999 ensued the most satisfying part of his career when Agentis Software was spun off as a commercial venture from A2 I2. Bill had equity in the new company, based in Melbourne and the USA, and was a key member of the team that developed a range of software systems aimed at allowing large corporations to automate (and thus save time and money on) their most challenging, complex and unpredictable business problems. These next-generation systems have to be flexible yet simple, and Bill's formidable ability to utilise both Java and XML codes was fundamental to their development. His name is on several patent applications now pending in the United States.
Bill Peden's business card read 'extreme software engineer'. He worked hard and played very hard - some called him 'Mr 110 per cent'. He was always passionate. A conversation with him not only crackled with facts, questions and humour, but reaffirmed one's value as a person. 'He spoke to me as though I wasn't past my use-by date', said one woman after spending time with him at her granddaughter's wedding.
An inveterate builder of model aeroplanes as a child, latterly he made paper aeroplanes that flew higher and longer than anyone else's. In his pocket he carried a supply of pipe-cleaners which he would fashion into flowers to give to friends or passers-by, or into intricate geometric shapes - a favorite was a sphere, inside which was a cube surrounding a triangle. Wherever he lived he grew tomatoes, herbs and - if possible - roses in the back yard.
He loved life and had enormous zest for it. He was an icon in the rave music and dance party scene, his gymnastics on the floor matched in intensity only by the velocity of his smile. 'Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. Full of humorous and bizarre yet incredible wisdom…all accompanied with a huge grin', reads a tribute on one of the websites that mark his death. He loved the anonymity and freshness of this scene. Here his talents and achievements counted for nothing, few knew he had a mind that was wired differently to most, and he was simply 'dancing Bill'.
He is survived by his parents, Bob and Marlene Peden, his sister Laura Peden and her husband David Nolan, and his nieces Genevieve, Josephine and Emma.
- Anne Latreille
Click to expand...
 
Hi...
Would like to share this poem...in the hope that it helps someone somewhere even if only a little, with the painful process of grieving...
A DYING POEM..
Death is nothing at all....
I have only slipped away into the next room...
I am I & you are you..
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still
Call me by my old familiar name...
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used..
Put no difference into your tone...
Wear no forced air of solomnity or sorrow...
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes...
We enjoyed together...
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me..
Let my name be ever the household word that it
always was...
Let it be spoken without effort...
Without the ghost of a shadow on it..
Life means all that it ever meant...
It is the same as it ever was..
There is absolutely unbroken continuity..
What is death but a negligible accident...
Why should I be out of mind...
Because I am out of sight...
I am but waiting for you, for an interval..
Somewhere very near..
Just around the corner...
All is well...
Peace & love...
jemelsa...
 
I didn't want this one to get lost in the purge...
And just wanted to remind people that we have set up a memorial page here which people can submit pictures and stories to. Also on the site are some of Bill's writings about various things.
Thinkin' of ya bill :)
[ 31 May 2002: Message edited by: VooDoo Gurl ]
 
I sent a copy of this to the archive already incase it was lost by some UBB error... I've also got it saved on my hard disk... but yeah, worth keeping at the top anyway... :)
 
i wrote this in my journal after reading this thread because it affected me so and i hope that this will bring some comfort to those that did and did not know bill.
-
I think of the times when i worry about things that hardly ever matter. Like losing a pen or breaking a pair of sunglasses, which of course can be quite devastating at some point in our lives. Then I come across a web site that relinquishes the memory of a man that once lived and still lives in the memory of others.
I have never met him, but he has touched me deeply and has irrevocably reminded me of the things I already know and has opened my eyes to things I did not know.
I now smile and realise how wonderful the life is that I have been given. And yes, I know I may fail once in awhile and curse about little things. But I will certainly try to remember the things that make me and other people in my life happy. Seeing a person smile always makes my day brighter and doing silly things to make these smiles happen is one of the best things I can do.
Screw embarassing myself, making myself and others around me happy, and I feel like they mean something to me is not to others is the most I can achieve. And so my lifelong goals came to a grinding halt and new ones reappeared that had long been forgotten.
work hard
play hard screw the little things
smile, laugh and cry heartily and at the best possible ability one can conjure.
For all those who have yet to know and those who already do, I love you. Thanks Bill.
-
 
Rest in peace grant to him oh my Lord and Lady God(dess); and let Light perpetual shine upon him.
 
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