Ron Freimuth

[robert young 2,897]

I heard about Ron a couple of days ago. I agree with Herve that Ron was instrumental in his work researching and revealing the secrets of FS airfiles, and that is something he willingly and generously shared with anyone. But setting aside the small world of simulation, it is sad when someone dies at only 64 years, perhaps before they were ready, and I am very sad at Ron's passing.Please forgive me publishing a short note I received from a personal friend of Ron who informed me of his death, but I think this summary was intended to be read by those who knew Ron online but not personally. I have repeated this info in another thread and hope that is ok this once. See below this message.In appreciation,Rob YoungFrom his friend, Robert Wagner:"Ron and I exchanged emails every day for 20 years. We met in person five times: twice in Austin, twice at his old house in Richardson TX, once in Mongromery AL. Ron was a brilliant engineer (MSEE Stanford) who could rattle off fundamental equations like a recent grad. His favorites were Maxwell's. He loved analog engineering, regarded digital as glorified programming rather than Real Engineering. He thought he was a good programmer but was actually bad at it. (I'm a Real Programmer who thinks he knows physics but is actually doesn't.) He worked at NASA AMES and HP, both in Silicon Valley, moved to TX in the '80s to work a lousy job at ElectroSpace (top secret, involved communications) until they fired him. I met Ron then, in the BBS days, in a science forum where we were both talking to Frederick Kantor (Information Mechanics, physics professor at Columbia despite no physics degree) and Kip Thorne (Caltech, my alma mater).His Richardson house burned down two years ago for reasons never explained. He lived in apartments he hated; six months ago bought a nice house in Plano. Before that move, we had long discussions about where he should go. He favored Austin. He settled on Plano out of familiarity with North Dallas and lack of strength to move very far. He did everything physical himself, wouldn't dream of hiring movers to haul his stuff. Ron was 64, same as I am. It was a sad ending to a good man and friendship."

[nickpike 0]

Very sad and shocked to hear this news.Ron was always prepared to be helpful.I know he will be missed.Nick

[nateanderson 1]

This is sad news. Although I have used Ron's knowledge and aired.ini files for years I only had my first personal interaction with him on this forum about two months ago. He was most willing to share his knowledge. I am sure he had a better understanding of the .air file than most of the people at MS. He will most definitely be missed in the FS world. My respects to the family.BenJohn 11:25 - ******* said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

[Varmint007 2]

I have known Ron now for about 4 years. I have worked with him extensively on our products and even flew down to Dallas a couple of years ago to meet with him.He was a very brilliant man and I considered him a great friend and colleague. I will miss him very much, and my deepest condolences go out to his friends and family.I also hope Avsim will consider a tribute of some kind (if they haven't already) to his exceptional body of work within our hobby. I can think of only a handful of individuals who have contributed so much.Go with the angels Ron, You'll be very much missed...--Jon Blum