[strangemonad]

I worked closely with Bob at Square through most of the 2010s. I keep coming to write something but nothing could do it justice... I just feel numb at this news.

So many of you have shared about how he impacted Java, Open Source, and being an engineer. I figured I could recount a couple more personal anecdotes.

1) I tried to keep up with Bob drink for drink one night... big mistake. We were at Strange Loop in St. Louis together (I believe 2013). On the Saturday, a bunch of us went out for drinks at a nearby dive bar. He was the life of the party as usual. I stopped at least 1 hr and 5 drinks shy of Bob. The next morning I woke up with the 3rd worst hangover I had ever had and he looked fresh as could be.

2) A bunch of Squares went to The Cafe (a Gay bar in the Castro) one night. He and his wife had put the girls to bed and called a sitter so they could come out with us. I vividly remember at one point in the night, we were hanging out by the bar area and I mentioned I was going to go down on the dance floor for a bit. "Down there?" he asks as he grabs me by the shoulder with a mild look a fear on his face. It was a pretty busy night. A gogo dancer stood over us, hips to eye level, on the covered pool table. "You don't want to go down theeeere!" implicit in his tone was a sense of worry that I'd be a piece of meat in the sea of people. His wife looked at me, shrugged, and we laughed