Re: Henry Story

Dear Solid and Semantic Web community,
I am very shocked at this news and deeply saddened.
Thank you for the wonderful write-ups above.
I did manage to meet Henry once.I invited him to my place of work on Grays Inn
Road, London, which later became Yell Labs. He talked about his work with the
Semantic Web, Web-ID and Solid.
It was totally impromptu and well appreciated.
He then became my go-to person on Twitter for interesting and insightful
dialogues and contacts with interesting people.
My thoughts go out to his family.
How very sad.
Adam Saltiel






On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 2:58 PM Joshua Shinavier <josh@fortytwo.net>  wrote:
I am truly saddened by this news. I never met Henry in person, though we tried
to meet up once when I was in Europe, and I had always hoped we would get
another chance to sit down and jam on RDF and category theory, or knowledge
graphs and decentralization, etc. Henry blended idealism with a practical and
professional approach to solving the Web's problems, and he had an infectious
enthusiasm for his topics of interest which will certainly be missed.
Josh

On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 5:52 AM Sarven Capadisli <info@csarven.ca> wrote:
It is with great sadness that I must inform everyone that we have lost 
our dear friend and colleague Henry Story ( 
https://bblfish.net/people/henry/card#me  ) earlier this week.

This is incredibly hard for me to write. I am deeply saddened by his 
friends' and family's loss, as well as personally, and for several 
communities he has been part of for so many years. My deepest 
condolences, and those of members of the community who knew him and 
admired him, go out to his family.

If memory serves me well, Henry and I were acquainted in 2008, but met 
online in 2010, when we discussed FOAF+SSL / WebID, social web, 
decentralisation, and everything in between. And, of course, with Henry, 
if one is willing, there is always a healthy dose of discussion on 
philosophical and mathematical underpinnings of a lot of such topics, 
and how it all came together.

Over the years, Henry provided me with all the context to undoubtedly 
interconnected ideas in technology and philosophy I ever needed.

I had the privilege of having him visit my place in Bern. He was kind 
enough to eat my overly spicy food and drink wine to compensate the 
taste. It was a joy to talk about life stuff and tech in my balcony.

Henry has impacted and influenced me in different ways over the years. 
His perseverance to get to the bottom of a problem is unmatched.

Whenever I felt frustrated in open standards development, Henry reminded 
that standards are like wine: some will age well, and others spoil. He 
encouraged me to be patient, assuring me that things will work out in 
due time.

He took the time to research and develop, and meet open challenges by 
approaching from multiple disciplines to solidify the ideas is 
inspiring, and has been instrumental, to say the least, for the 
communities he has been part of. One doesn't have to look far to come 
across Henry's footprints. Quite literally the father of many works and 
projects.

From my perspective, he generally came across like the underdog in 
whatever he was doing. Humble and aiming for the stars. He took time to 
carefully listen what others had to say and was generous with his 
knowledge and time, and kind.

Henry, I admire you immensely. Words will never suffice.

I'd like to invite everyone to reflect and honour his memory. Carry on 
with his work. A moment of silence will be observed at W3C TPAC to 
remember Henry and his impact on our community.

-Sarven
https://csarven.ca/#i