I'm terribly sorry for your loss, and for the enormous shock to Luke's family and friends. My condolences.

I run the risk of getting flamed for this post.

This seems to me to be a perfectly appropriate place for a memorial.

Apropos of which: Is it inappropriate, in a memorial for a wonderful hacker, to point out that the web is obviously incomplete because it doesn't yet contain an obvious, recognized spot for memorializing wonderful hackers? Or, for that matter, memorializing anyone else?

Since I myself would be honored if people spent a portion of my memorial service in a design debate, preferably one fueled by high-quality pizza and beer, I'll go ahead and plant this idea here. May someone wiser than I make it work.

An online memorial site is a pretty tough challenge in social media design. It poses big moderation and privacy problems, and it would have to be monetized... delicately. Very delicately, lest the ghost of Jessica Mitford haunt everyone involved.

http://www.mitford.org/nytimes.htm

1000memories (YC) is doing something like that - http://1000memories.com/

I'm a founder of 1000Memories, and this is precisely what we're trying to do. Please feel free to check out our site, and if we can be of personal assistance, please get in touch with me directly at brett [at] 1000memories [dot] com

Wow, so they are. I can't keep track of the players without a scorecard.

I imagine Luke would be very vocal during that conversation, especially if there were pizza and beer :) Thanks for reading, and taking the time to respond.

I didn't know Luke or his family, but as a private pilot and father/husband, this story saddens me for the non-zero possibility that my own wife and kids would be left in a similar situation.

Because different people grieve in different ways, and I suspect a non-zero number of "us" will want to know more about the incident, I offer the following two resources, not for macabre voyeurism, but for those who want to perhaps understand more of the technical details. I know that these sites have been helpful to me in the (fortunately very few) times in the past when I've lost pilot friends of mine.

The FAA site will likely have the basic data posted tomorrow: http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/prelimina...

The NTSB will have a preliminary report in a few days, and a final report will be months in coming: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/AccList.asp?month=10&year=2010

If those resources are helpful to just one person close to Luke and family, it was worth the 5 minutes it took to post this.

Wow. This is fantastic. Thank you for taking the time to post this response. I'll pass this information along to those close to the Nerdery and the Bucklin family.

Here are the links from the original post since they didn't show up as clickable above:

http://blog.nerdery.com

http://www.lukeandginger.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23LukeComeHome

http://thanks.lukeandginger.com/

Thanks for the nice memorial. I didn't know Luke, but it sounds like he's leaving behind a great example and a lot of inspiration.

And it's a shame that Wikipedia does not even have a page for him. What is he, not notable enough?

Thanks for taking the time to comment, @zachster.

Remark: this isn't twitter. Because replies are automatically threaded, you don't need to include @name.

Thanks @endgame. Err.....endgame :) Habits die hard.

"The more sincere the effort, the more genuine the return. Best. ROI. Lesson. Ever" So simple yet so few are able to follow it... Terrible loss.

Thanks for your response.

Anyone who would flame you for writing this would be a jerk--not worth worrying about.

I am sorry for your loss. It sounds as if the world has lost a decent person who used his gifts to give something back.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

This is immensely tragic, never let yourself be made to feel that pain is relative and thus unimportant. I can not imagine what those close to them are going through.

Thanks for your comment.

I didn't know Luke, or any of the Nerdery team, but nevertheless I likely had infinitely more in common with him than any stranger I would pass on the street.

As I am sure many here will agree, it is always a tragedy that someone so talented should pass before their time, especially under these circumstances.

My condolences are with the family and friends, for all their losses right now.

Thanks for your comment, and your support. I will pass this along to the team at The Nerdery.

I'm an aviation enthusiast and I've been watching this situation pretty closely. Thanks for bringing this to the HN community.

You're welcome. Thanks for reading and taking the time to respond.

I never met or knew Luke or the team at Nerdery, but all the same, I'm glad you posted this. It's a very sad thing to lose a member of our community, particularly one so accomplished and beloved. My thoughts are with you all.

Thanks for your response. Years ago I cut my SEO teeth with Eric Ward and Lance Loveday, two of your peers in the biz. Don't chat with Eric much, but had breakfast with Lance this past summer when he was in Minneapolis.

Seeing your reply reinforces what I've observed in amazement today.....we're all connected in some way, just trying to get by, do good work, and offer a helping hand whenever we can. It's a small world, indeed. Thanks much Rand - I'll pass this along.

I didn't know Luke personally, but having certainly followed The Nerdery for a short while and having met some of its cohort, I am grateful for the legacy Luke built. May he rest in peace, even as his work continues.

We all are. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

My deepest sympathies to Luke's family and friends. There is no reason for you not to share the memory of him and his sons here. Again, my condolences.

I didn't know of Luke or even of him but I am sorry to hear that your community has lost such a towering figure. I am particularly sorry for his wife; to lose your husband and three of your six children would be unimaginably horrifying and I cannot imagine the depth of her grief or that of the remaining kids. My thoughts are with all of you.

Thanks for your reply. I will pass this along to the team at The Nerdery.

I have heard of The Nerdery, but was completely unaware of this. My sincere condolences to you. The hacker community lost someone who was so accomplished.

I hope his family finds solace, and strength. My heart goes out to them.

Thank you for posting, and sharing this tragic piece of news. I know everyone at HN will appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and respond.

thanks, g. been a rough week around here. we're all thankful for the chance to get to know him, learn from him, and carry on the legacy. more so, we're relived the family finally has closure.

to the HN community in general, please use this as an opportunity to keep things in perspective. we're all out trying to do amazing things, and those things can pull at our resources -- time with family, friends, and other things that keep us centered. luke was incredible about supporting our life work balance, and i hope you guys and gals on the front lines remember to do the same. take care of yourselves.

last, to your point about the thanks site, this one really stuck out: http://thanks.lukeandginger.com/index/detail/id/324

NP. There's a lot of good out there from HN heading the way of the Nerdery. Let the rest of the guys know.

Thanks for the support, HN.

Sorry for your loss and thanks for sharing a wonderful eulogy with us.

You bet. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

This is definitely an appropriate place to post a remembrance. His legacy he leaves will only inspire others, I can only regret I didn't know about his goodwill until now.

Thanks for your reply. If you'd like to learn more about the events of the past week, as well as additional background on Luke and The Nerdery, I encourage you to visit these links:

http://blog.nerdery.com

http://www.lukeandginger.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23LukeComeHome

http://thanks.lukeandginger.com/

Thanks for posting and my condolences.

I had not heard of Luke or The Nerdery before but reading about both now is quite inspiring. Sounds like a fantastic company ran by a great guy.

Sorry to hear that. :( Please send our condolences to his surviving family and friends. I think that Billy Joel was right when he said, "Only the good die young."

.

Brief, and to the point, literally :) Thanks for reading.

Thanks Adamgedde for posting this on HN. I'm from Minneapolis and we lost a great figure in this community.

R.I.P Luke you were an inspiration.

Thanks for the 'local' comment. There has been a ton of support here in the Twin Cities, as I'm sure you've seen. I'll be passing along the groundswell of support from HN to the team at The Nerdery. Thanks again.

Three sons implies a wife, or at least a mother, not present in the plane. She must be completely devastated. :(

Sorry for your loss, I can't see how anyone would flame you for this post.

Thanks for your comment, and for taking the time to read and reply.

I'm sorry to hear that brother. Thank you for posting.

Rest in peace, Luke Bucklin. Minnesota will miss you.

R.I.P.