Completely off the subject of SQLite, although he is a member of this SQLite forum, and a genius on SQL/SQLite, does anyone know why hasn't Keith Medcalf post anything for a while? Just wondering.

I don't know but I'm glad you asked. I was going to ask the same question a couple days ago but didn't want to pry.

I hope he is doing well.

I hope he is doing well.

Indeed.

Thirded.

WOW! Thanks, Kees. I am 60, also. It's funny how we get to know each other through technical needs and become "close" through these social/technical media, and yet, we really don't know each other. I will surely miss him.

I was wondering about Keith's absence too...
So sad, if your sleuthing is accurate :(
He will be missed.

PS: Maybe a forum admin can try a direct email to Keyth's address, to inquire about him, in case anyone reads it.

Somewhere in this forum there is a discussion relating to vsv.c provided by Keith: the link was http://www.dessus.com/files/vsv.c.

The thread in this forum is found here.

This link has a Keith Medcalf which gives his location as North Carolina USA and has an email address k***@dessus.com. There is also a reference to SQLite at that link.

I am hoping that you are wrong given that dessus is common in the link (for vsv.c) and the email address.

It is possible that he might have moved from North Carolina to Alberta. It is equally possible that the information at This link (see above) is out of date.

I think we need a clearer indication of Keith's status.

I also hope I'm wrong.

We'll see.

-- 
Kees Nuyt

link has a Keith Medcalf which gives his location as North Carolina USA

That zoominfo link incorrectly states Keith's employment "at SQLite". That non-fact is where the North Carolina location arose. There are other reasons to think he was a citizen of Canada.¹

... hoping ...

I've had the opportunity to observe Keith's internet presence for about 30 years. When I saw his last post here, I was concerned for him because that was the only time I ever saw him leave such a high fraction of obviously misspelled words in a post. It was several standard deviations out, whereas his grammar, spelling, and attention to technical detail were previously nearly impeccable. It seems unlikely that he would fail to edit that post if he could.

I, too, will miss his technical contributions here and even the occasional argument. He was knowledgeable and intellectually honest. I hope he finds peace.

1. ^{^} For example: https://groups.google.com/g/misc.taxes/c/dgmeViCmv4I

It was several standard deviations out, whereas his grammar, spelling, and attention to technical detail were previously nearly impeccable.

Yes, I remember that post and thinking, he must be typing really fast because he is late for something.

Maybe a forum admin can try a direct email to Keyth's address, to inquire about him, in case anyone reads it.

I am not an admin, but I had his email from an email exchange we had back when this forum was a mail-list a few years ago. No answer, yet.

I've spent much of today trying to establish whether or not the Keith Medcalf that was buried today in Calgary is the same Keith Medcalf that was the most prolific contributor to this forum. I cannot be certain but all evidence suggests that the the deceased is "our" Keith.

The exact date of Keith's death is uncertain, though it was probably sometime in July, perhaps not long after his last post on this forum. He lived alone, in a nice apartment in Calgary. His body was found on 2023-08-03. There were no signs of a struggle or trauma or foul play. The indications are that Keith knew that he was dying and that he died peacefully in his sleep.

Keith has no known living relatives, nor local friends. I was able to locate and speak with only one person who knew Keith personally. That person told me that Keith had been struggling for several years with cancer, but did not have further details.

We here on the SQLite Forum only knew Keith through his words. We are grateful for his selfless and lasting contribution to the SQLite community.

We here on the SQLite Forum only knew Keith through his words. We are grateful for his selfless and lasting contribution to the SQLite community.

Indeed, indeed. Dr. Hipp. Thank you for those words. One word that I learned from him was "mayhaps". I will continue to use it on his remembrance.

I too feel very sad he died.

I suggest his work on SQLite extensions and Python wrapper should be preserved before his site goes down. Clearly he wasn't one to keep his work for himself and I'm certain he would have been happy to see others benefit from his knowledge, like the continuous superb contents of his posts show.

I've dig into my SQLite forum mail storage and found this post: https://sqlite.org/forum/forumpost/546188cb5f were he posted a link to his collection of SQLite extensions: http://www.dessus.com/files/sqlite3extensions.zip

The files in the zip file were all touched during 2023 and that must be the last state of his work on SQLite.

The files in the zip file were all touched during 2023 and that must be the last state of his work on SQLite.

i've scraped all of his posted extension URLs and posted the files as-is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tjn8zhcvt6i86dh/AADcX8Kheb-2MMrRwPA86vN6a?dl=0

There's no guaranty that that link will stay valid long-term, but it may perhaps save someone some archival work short-term.

Additionally, Keith Medcalf has been posting to the late sqlite-users mailing list since at least May 2012 — well over a decade ago:

Date: Sun, 06 May 2012 20:08:50 -0600
Organization: Keith Medcalf
Message-Id: <d11e5f356a78b54e9d7d11a1d0a03413@mail.dessus.com>

Having found info from his likely Facebook account and LinkedIn profile. There's a strong possibility that he's the Keith referred to in this obituary: https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/22877676/george-medcalf

The mailing list is still active today. I have all post from 2009/03/05.

I'd probably have given up on SQLite had it not been for Keith. I didn't have a lot of programming experience (all self taught, only ever dabbled with c and only ever used windows) but he spoon fed me how to load extensions, use extra_init and helped me on many other occasions. Here I am today, using linux manjaro and getting the sqlite repository updated daily.

RIP Keith.

I will miss the Keith-ness of his messages. I read all of them even when they didn't relate to my specific sql-interests or work, and even if I didn't understand all of them, because I always (thought I) learned something from them. Us "kiddies" will have to learn to navigate the world of SQLite without him, but never without the lessons and guidance preserved in his messages

Hello I worked with Keith at a major oil company in Toronto around 1999-2004. Around 2004 he was transferred to Calgary. He was with the company in Calgary until about 2016 when I last saw him. He was a great fellow, full of life and energy. Best described as a "real character". One of those people you simply do not forget. Really helpful and kind. Passionate to a fault. Rest in peace Keith.

I've pushed these to GitHub, because more copies can only help preservation.

I did my best to assign authorship to his GitHub user, and preserve modification dates from the zip file by creating a few artificial commits.

RIP Keith

github.com/ncruces/kmedcalf-sqlite

Thank you for this effort, Nuno. I appreciate having this knowledge continue.

Thanks for this...it helped me today :-)