_____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ Patrick Purcell died at his home in London, February 8, 2007. Many of us met Patrick at conferences, in my case ICS conferences at Oxford in 2003 and York this past September 2006. In addition, I -- and my Connected Lives -- colleagues benefited from his incisive and enthusiastic editing of our chapter for his recent _Networked Neighbourhoods_ book (Springer, whom Patrick was always pushing to do better marketing -- quite he was, too!) Patrick was always inquisitive, charming, smart and original. At the end of the York conference, we trained down to London and spent the evening together. What a congenial partner, who's sunny side was marred only when the Goethe Institute restaurant (across from his Imperial College of Science) had not reserved his favourite table for us. His eyes sparkled and has cane flashed, because he dearly wanted me to have the best view for dinner. We had a jolly time. In his 80s, he was a lad in his 60s. Patrick had a varied career. He was proud of his family's Irish revolutionary background, and made it clear to me that he had "never become English". As a computer scientist, he was an enthusiastic convert to the social side of things, and especially to network analysis. I always felt minded encouragement from him. Not only was he a pleasure to work with editorially, he was a pleasure to be with as a person. Here is what the official Imperial College site says (with a great picture): "Purcell's, work for over four decades, has reflected an abiding interest in the application of media technology to various aspects of human affairs, both from the perspectives of the social group and the single personal user.... The underlying impetus informing this work seeks to identify how advances in the technology of the information society may be utilized most constructively in various social and personal situations.... His career as an academic researcher has included professorial appointments and/or senior research fellowships in a number of leading academic institutions, including Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London (1994 - to date), University of Ulster, UK (1990 - 1994), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (1982 - 1990) and the Royal College of Art, London (1964 - 1981). During this time, he has participated as a founding member, in the establishment of four research laboratories, both in the UK & USA. His publication list extends to over seventy papers and the editing of several books in his research domain." http://www.iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/p.purcell/ Sunny Bains, Patrick's colleague, wrote to me that Patrick's death was a surprise to all. They had just lunched last week. "Although, like most people of his age, he had many health issues, he was nevertheless completely functional as far as we could tell, so his death has been a great shock among his colleagues here. He was a fantastic character to the end and we will truly miss him." There is a memorial site for people to record their thoughts: http://sunnybains.typepad.com/patrick_purcell/2007/02/patrick_purcell.html Bains further wrote to me, "He was supposed to go to a research group dinner last night. When he didn't show up (very unlike him) the administrator of the group decided to check on him on the way home. His lights were off (again unusual) and she called the police. They found him sitting in a chair. What exactly he died of we may never know...." I think it's just like Patrick: sitting in his chair, with a smile, looking forward to the future. What a way to go! Barry Wellman