TJ Byers passing

[rick.curl]

I was stunned to find a small block at the bottom of page 6 of the February issue about the death of TJ Byers on January 11th.

I have enjoyed reading his columns for several years and have learned quite a lot from him. It's a bit eerie that in the same issue that announced his death there is a current column he wrote, so I presume his passing must have been sudden.

Can anyone shed more light on what happened?

My condolences to his family and friends.

TJ- you will be missed.

-Rick

[Robert Reed]

I too was shocked at his passing, but more so by the skimpy little blurb buried at the bottom of the page. I would have thought N&V would have paid a little more tribute to a long time editor. Maybe there just wasn't time. I didn't always agree with his column, but I always enjoyed reading his colunm. In a world of of software and development boards, he some brought electronics down to earth with practical,workable circuits.I for one will miss his writings.

[Chris Smith]

How terrible.

We will miss his great columns.

I also remember another great NV writer who wrote the Laser column.

[Dean Huster]

Assuming that N&V works as did Poptronics, a contributing columnist usually has to have his finished columns in at least three months before the issue is published to allow for all the stuff that goes on with the publishing business. When Gernsback/Poptronics folded in January 2003, I had just finished the March 2003 "Q & A" column, so there went two months of work for naught. It makes it difficult to write some time-sensitive material. It's amazing that the "blurb" on his passing made it into the issue in such a timely manner.

I, too, wish the family and friends of TJ my condolences. I don't know the circumstances surrounding his death, but the grief of the family will be great regardless. We all wish them well.

Dean

[Edd]

.

F.Y.I…….

DUWAYNE BYERS

May 11, 1947-Jan. 10, 2007

Duwayne “T.J.â€

[Joseph]

I really enjoyed his section. Rest in Peace, TJ.

[Janitor Tzap]

Edd,

I think everyone is wondering if it was a medical condition, or if it was some kind of accident that was the cause.

I will miss T.J.
Most of his columns were informative, and gave me idea's as to how I could modify, or adapt some of the projects I was working on with some of his own designs.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

[CeaSaR]

I am... stunned, and I feel the great loss to the electronics community. TJ
was a grounding force to the roots of electronics in an increasingly
computer programmed world. He epitomized the heart of the true
enthusiast, able to help anyone who was struggling with a concept or a
need. My hat is off to him.

I wish to express my sincerest condolences to all of his family and friends,
and to all of you. He will be dearly missed.

CeaSaR

[PrIsMaTiC]

It seems like several lifetimes ago when I started
reading magazines like Radio and Popular Electronics.

Because I was a preteen, my very active imaginaton
led me to believe that all the columnists in these
publications were the lovable and brilliant uncle or
grandfather I never had.

Almost all those wonderful gentlemen are gone. As each
one passed away it broke my heart. Most of them lived
into their seventies or eighties, so I guess you could
say they had a full life. I wish they were still around.
I miss them all very much.

I'm one of the few lifetime subscribers to Nuts & Volts.
Like many of you, I was puzzled by that small box about
T.J. Byers passing. If Mr. Byers death was a result of an
illness, he had time to tell the publishers of Nuts & Volts
how to inform his readers. Maybe he did not want a
lengthy column about his life.

PrIsMaTiC

[Michael Kaudze]

FYI.

You can expect to read about the life of TJ Byers in the March 2007 issue of Nuts & Volts Magazine.

We got a call from the family of TJ Byers early morning January 11th about the bad news. Everyone here was really sad to hear the news of TJ's passing... We didn't have enough time to publish something about his life in the February issue of Nuts with production already finalized... But an article about TJ is being supplied by his long time girlfriend for the March 2007 issue.

I will also make the article available online when it has been published.

Thanks.
Michael Kaudze
Nuts & Volts / SERVO Magazine

[rick.curl]

Thanks, Michael.

I will look forward to reading it. I'm very glad to know Nuts & Volts is planning on honoring TJ with an in-depth article!

-Rick

[Craig Kendrick Sellen]

I am shocked about TJ's passing. I sent him several e mails or letters and he whould allways publish them and answer my requests. He's gone with Herb Friedman of Electronics Iustillrated. Is Louis E. Garner around yet or is he gone too.
craig kendrick sellen

[Dean Huster]

Many of those "old" columnists are still around. I was thinking of writing a "where are they now" article for Poptronics before it died. I'd contacted Tom "Tomcat" Kneitel who was a prolific writer for Electronics Illustrated and I think Popular Electronics and published his own ham magazine which contained extremely long opinionated editorials each month. Tom was enthusiastic about such an article and was going to help me find a lot of these folks.

When Larry Steckler asked me to write the "Q & A" column for Poptronics, I was awestruck. My best friend and I back in our high school days thought that writing an article for such a prestigious magazine as Popular Electronics would be the experience of a lifetime. And writing the column was really a lot of fun until its untimely end.

Dean

[Robert Reed]

Dean
If you've got yours ears on - Do you have any idea why these fine magazines died ? I enjoyed each and every issue for quite a while and was surprised to learn that they were gone several years later when I was going to resubscribe.Did they get buried in the onslaught of the "computerized and development board" world? I figure you would have a much better insight on this than the rest of us.