>First of all, thank you for saying that. There are some here who have distorted images of all of them.
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>I only met Jeff once, when he was teaching a class in downtown Chicago. He seemed OK.
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>Steve is IMO one of the most brilliant guys who ever took up FoxPro. There is a very small group of people I consider the best FoxPro developers ever and you are both in it. I do not believe in false idolatry but an honest compliment is a pleasure to give. You were in your longhair phase, working for Flash, but the Microsofties sought you out like you were one of their own. Which before long you were.
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>The other guy I can't forget from that trip, sadly, is Tom Rettig. He also respected you greatly and had the full respect of the MS team. His presentation on the DBC, which had just been announced, was masterful. He was wearing a pair of glasses and looked like a professor. The last time I saw him was very late at night at a party in Norm's room,Norm asleep in the other room. The door open in the other room with the breeze coming in the open screen door. You were probably the only sober person there. It was a nice mellow moment and I didn't appreciate it enough at the time.
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>If you didn't hear, Tom West died last week. He reminded me of you.
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>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/28/business/28west.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tom%20west&st=cse
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>Maybe you should emulate Tracy Kidder more than Tom West. The account you posted of the Northridge earthquake was beyond belief. It had that you-are-here feeling that can't be faked. Absolutely effing spectacular.. The coffee cups that didn't break? You can't fake that.

Your reply here brought back a lot of great memories. In November 1995, just a few months before Tom Rettig passed away, he joined my father and I for a nice Thanksgiving dinner at a cool restaurant in the harbor in Marina del Rey. As you probably know, Tom was a child actor and was in a movie with Marylin Monroe and Rock Hudson, and was one of the two actors who starred in the Lassie TV show. My dad was about 10 years older than Tom and grew up in the Westwood area, and my dad was close friends with Shirley Temple in their teenage years, played football catch in a park with actor Ronald Reagen, dated the daughter of boxer Jack Dempsey, and a zillion more stories. For that turkey dinner, I mostly listened to my dad and Tom talk about lots of stuff and people who they both knew, and it was likely they would have met up in the future as friends if Tom hadn't passed away soon after.

One other interesting Tom Rettig story... I'm guessing sometime in 1994, I was over at Tom Rettig's apartment hanging out with him one evening. He had a nice place on the 3rd (of 3) floors that was on the entrance/exit of the Marina del Rey private boat harbor. There was a knock at the door, and his next door neighbor, a jazz musician, locked himself out of his own place, and asked to hop over the balconies to get into his place. I said hi, and the guy was able to get over to his balcony and get in. Tom then told me that was Roger Clinton, the then U.S. president (Bill Clinton) brother (technically half brother). I later went to a party Tom and another neighbor hosted and go to know Roger and his wife. Roger liked to borrow my pocket laser pointer to shine it on boats in the harbor at night, against the approval of his wife. And Tom, Roger, his wife, and another friend all went to see a Circus du Soleil show on the Santa Monica pier. Roger was a nice guy, typical musician. Rettig always reminded me of the character Dudley Moore played in the movie Arthur. :)

Maybe you can find your way to the SWFox.net conference this October so we can talk more in person. Some past Fox team members are talking about getting as many team members showing up at SWFox this year, hopefully some are able to attend. I've never missed any of the SWFox events since the first one.