Monday, May 21, 2007

Rich Barrett passes; a loss we'll feel

Rich BarrettMy good friend Rich Barrett has passed away. He was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of fasteners -- a subject often overlooked by engineering organizations both small and large. He deserves credit from all of us for caring about a subject so many ignore as an afterthought; a subject that, if ignored, can lead to momentous engineering failures and loss of life and property. For my money, if an engineer CAN be a hero, Rich Barrett was a hero.

I've maintained a large portion of his Fastener Design Manual on this Web site. It'll stay here until I leave TCNJ for good and all, or until Rich's family asks me to pull it down. In the meantime, there will be no answers to e-mail inquiries made to Rich. I certainly won't do it, and I never have. Dozens of engineers has written to ask Rich for free help, which he didn't have time to give during his life, and which I am neither qualified nor inclined to pitch in. It's just a book -- read it or don't, but don't bother with questions. Rich did a fine job collecting a cache of info about fasteners, but he didn't leave behind a support service. You certainly won't honor his life by asking for help now.

This is his last communication to me, dated 03.17.2007:
  1. My spouse and I divorced over religious differences. She thought she was God and I didn't.
  2. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
  3. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
  4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
  5. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
  6. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
  7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
  8. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
  9. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
  10. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
  11. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
  12. God must love stupid people; He made so many.
  13. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
  14. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
  15. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
  16. Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
  17. Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
  18. Procrastinate Now!
  19. I have a degree in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?
  20. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
  21. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
  22. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
  23. They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
  24. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
  25. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
  26. Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
  27. The trouble with life is there's no background music.
  28. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
  29. I smile because I don't know what the heck is going on.
This list has probably been around the Internet and back. But it shows that Rich was keeping a sense of humor around until the last.

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posted by Ron @ 9:48 PM

1 Comments:

At 8:37 PM, Blogger Professor Kim said...

Humor is a good thing. Please accept my condolences.

 

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