No more Roger Nelson
by Ward Dossche - 2:292/854

The last couple of years a morbid reality hit, if you saw your
name mentioned in an article here written by me, it meant you
were dead. Quite shocking.

Really, I have been writing too many obituaries and it uncovers
a reality about FidoNet ... it is dying, and so are we.

On Sept. 10th 2019 Roger Nelson of 1:3828/7 NCS BBS passed away
from reasons undisclosed but definitely natural.

Roger was 85 years old when he died. He was born in New Orleans,
LA and moved to Houma LA around 1985. He is survived by two
sons and a daughter. He has 4 grandchildren.

Roger had a computer repair shop called Nelson's Computer
Service. He retired around age 65, some 20 years ago.

His main hobby was fishing until his legs limited him from
getting in and out of the boat. After that he was rather
reclusive and spent most of his time watching classic movies and
tinkering with computers I was told.

Roger entered the nodelist Nov.15th 1991. But as is the case
with many of us, he had been active before as a user on a BBS
and later as a point. At least that's what he mentioned to me.

Roger was very modest but a man of many talents. We chatted a
lot about JFK being murdered (he was very close to the team of
Jim Garrison, the New Orleans District Attorney who was the only
one to bring someone to trial, without success), about fishing,
about the D'Bridge software and about anything else really.
Aviation ... of course.

He was a moderator of certain echomail conferences and though he
was accused by some of squatting echo-tags, if it really
happened that way, then after some careful consideration I think
Roger did it with the best of intentions in mind.

He could be so very human. Unknown to many Roger entertained
links to some sysops who were claimed to be controversial ...
it was very easy to get in arguments with Bob Seaborn or Roy
Witt, but they were on Roger's "friends-list" and I remember he
was thoroughly shaken when Bob Seaborn passed away. He had few
friends, but those he had were very loyal and highly trusted.
If you were one of them, you were blessed.

He loved a good Guinness, his favourite beer, and there were
endless discussions about Irish Guinness versus the English
counterpart ... it appeared it's even being brewed in the US.
Then
FIDONEWS 36-37Page 3 16 Sep 2019


I sent him a batch of Belgian 12-degree trappist ales. From that
moment on he figured trappist ales were the best.

Roger was a gentleman, you could agree with him or disagree, but
whenever we did we both agreed to disagree -- like men.

During my summer-stay this past July at Camp Fife BSA in
Washington-state Roger was admitted in a nursing home where
tests were going to be performed but he was going to go home
after receiving some physical therapy, or so he said. Although
that may have been correct, the fact is that both Nick Andre and
I had been noticing a shift in behaviour by Roger and we were
getting really concerned ... You know, when you've had this
same scenario happen with other people downplaying the
seriousness of the situation, you become suspicious.

After a lengthy exchange of ideas, mostly about the JFK-murder,
of course, this summer of 2019 I wrote him "... one day ...
soon ... shaking your hand in friendship is now on the top of
my bucket-list"
... then came September 10th 2019 and Roger was no more.








FIDOGAZETTE Vol 13 No 38 Page 2 September 18, 2019


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