Ernie's (ION's) Passing

[poynt99]

Guys,

I received the sad news this morning, that yesterday morning, Ernie passed away peacefully in his sleep at home. Ernie had been battling cancer for about 5 years. It seems they did not give Ernie long to live after his diagnosis, but thanks to his strength and will, he carried on until yesterday.

It is an extremely sad day for us at OUR and the OU community as a whole. I feel very deeply sad for his partner Nina, who I am sure right now is wondering if she is in a nightmare or reality.

Many of you know ION as one of the most senior people on this forum, and also when he frequented OU. His knowledge and background in general electronics and audio is legendary, and his dedication to the OU community admirable.

I first met Ernie on OU many years ago (2006?) when many of us were feverishly working on Steven Mark's TPU. Lindsay will certainly remember that time, and also Ernie's handle at that time (Vortex). Ernie and I also had a connection through our love of audio, guitar, guitar amps and effects. We shared many beliefs in general, and I found him to be a wonderful mentor on many topics. I had a deep respect for him, as I'm sure many of you did also.

One talent Ernie had and shared was writing, and some of you may know and remember his story thread called "The Strange Case of the Turbo Light". He loved Sherlock Holmes and wrote this story under the pseudonym "SherlockHolmes". Sadly, only one post remains on OU, but I have the complete story which I will post here in this thread as an homage to "SherlockHolmes". Ernie offered to co-jointly finish the story with my assistance, but I humbly turned down the offer. I didn't want to dilute his style and storyline, and thought it better that SherlockHolmes himself complete it. I don't think it ever was completed, but what is there still remains a gem.

I may write more thoughts on Ernie with time, but wanted to get this to you now. Please offer your stories, thoughts on Ernie as well!
Ernie (aka ION, Vortex (Vince), SherlockHolmes) will be deeply missed.

Darren

[poynt99]

Ernie, circa 2009 at an outdoor concert.

[Peterae]

Thanks for the picture Darren.

Very sad news indeed.

[Peterae]

I've moved this thread to ion's workbench, posts were not allowed in OUR news thread.

I was thinking of a connection I had with  Ernie.

In the late 80's I worked for a world leading temperature control company in England UK but we had a branch in Long Island US, I was a test engineer and one of the products I tested and calibrated Ernie was asked to back engineer to work out how it worked, we found this out years later after he retired from the Temperature control business.

Hard to think we had a connection from many miles away.

He will be sadly missed  :

[Chet K]

Bump
Thank you Peter

Will add a few words myself next days

A very big empty space for me...hard to get my mind around it

[Itsu]

Thanks poynt99,  i am truly shocked and saddened by this news.

I know ION as a very knowledgeable and helpful person, always prepared to give his advice.

I will miss him, may he Rest In Peace.

Itsu

[gyula]

Sorry to hear about losing Ernie, my condolences to his partner, to his relatives and friends.

I had some personal messages with him during the years and he was friendly and respectful, with huge technical background knowledge and a down-to-earth way of thinking.

May he rest in piece.

Gyula

[Room3327]

It's difficult for me to express in words my feelings about Ion's death, a decade ago he and I started out on a bad footing, but it wasn't long before his understanding of electricity and electronics won me over.  I admired and respected him and as it turned out, his story and mine were very similar, we seem to have lived parallel lives in many regards.

I know I will miss him, you can usually tell the good guys in life by what they say and do and he was one of the best.  We never met or even talked in person but yet I felt I knew the man well.  Well enough to mourn his passing and I will miss him and his insight for a long time to come.

Good bye Ion and God bless!

Respectfully
Room3327   

[lost_bro]

A number of years back, I contacted ION regarding development of a type of HV push-pull inverter for another project.  We exchanged a few emails and he admitted that his work experience with inverters was quite a few years back, none the less we exchanged a few ideas regarding the design.  He struck me as someone who was very sincere and willing to assist if able.
Although my contact with him was only through correspondence, I felt a connection with him.

I am truly sorry to learn of his demise.  My condolences to his surviving family members.

take care, peace
lost_bro

[JimBoot]

What an amazing story Peter. I'll remember him as a generous, knowledgeable and genuine bloke. I had exchanges here and elsewhere and he was always helpful. My thoughts are with his family and those close to him.

[Centraflow]

Moved from other thread.

That is very sad news.

I have known Ernie for some years now, we emailed quite often on the SM TPU amongst other things, he had an open mind to ideas though some may see him in another light.

I have always looked up to him as a self-educated man who in lots of respect knew more than the highest level of  EE's, he was of the old school learning as an apprentice and became very skilled at his job.

Over the latter years, things were not easy for Ernie after losing a very close member of the family, but he was a fighter right up to the last.

Rest in peace my friend

73's

Mike

[nelsonrochaa]

We know we don't easily lose those we love and admire the most, and what should strengthen us are the good memories that last in our mind.
This life is a stage, perhaps the most winding path that we all travel until infinity.

My thoughts are with his family and friends those close to him.

[PhysicsProf]

   I also remember with appreciation my numerous exchanges with ION / Ernie through the years.  He shared many insights and will be missed!

   

[partzman]

Looking back, I see that my first communication with Ernie was in 2016.  Since that time we had become best of friends and I always looked forward to our extended telephone and email conversations.  Although we never met face to face, we discovered we had much in common such as music, our electronics backgrounds and goals, and life in general.

Ernie was not only a storehouse of information, he also had a storehouse of parts!  One time he told me about all the tubes he had acquired and I said, "I have just what you need.  A pristine programmable tube tester by SW Bell that weighs a ton so I'll have to bring it to you."  He knew I was into street rods, so he suggested I load up the wife, my bass guitar and amp, and make the trip to Pennsylvania.  Sadly, that never happened. 

As most here know, Ernie had a passion for SM's TPU.  Most of our phone time was spent on new ideas and concepts for the TPU.  I still find it hard to believe that I will never again hear "Jon, this is Ernie.  Have you got a minute?"

Pm

[TinMan]

When Chet called to give me the bad new's,i felt a small part of me disappear right there and then.

My first real connection to Ernie was back when i brought out the cool joule.
Out of all the top EE guy's here and at OU.com,like the late MarkE,poynt99-etc,Ernie was the only one to work out how the cool joule actually functioned. So that was the first thing he taught me--the miller effect in transistors.

Over the years i have considered 2 people to be my mentor's,one being Ernie,and the other of course -Darren (poynt99). I also had the pleasure of chatting to Ernie on a few occasions via skype,and i could tell from the first few minutes of us talking that he was a very kind and smart man.

You have taught and helped me so much over the year's Ernie,and for that i will be ever grateful.
I am not a believer in GOD,but energy can be neither created nor destroyed,and so i know you will live on in one way or another,and check in on us from time to time.

Thank you for all you have done,and all your help throughout the year's.
I will miss you deeply.


Brad

[Chet K]

Brad
Sorry to make such a brief call [when I told you]
been very hard for me to get my head around Ernie not being here..

I am speaking with his family and will hope to have more info to send along to those
who are interested .
RE The tribute.
As this happens I will ask Darren about how to share and what he feels is appropriate.


Sigh
soo many things I wanted to talk with Ernie about.....

Thx
Chet

[F6FLT]

Very bad news, really. I had some private email contact with Ernie, he had responded very positively to a project I had, ready to help.
He was competent, especially in electronics, and very rigorous in his reasoning, never in conspiracy theories or extravagant announcements. Since he spoke mostly in his field of expertise, I knew I could trust him. I will therefore miss this colleague whom I considered among the handful of the best FE contributors.
François

[Chef]

Very sad news.   

I never had any private contact with him, but I learned lot from his posts. He was a rational, very knowledgeable  guy, with open mind and heart, who always tried to help others with his knowledge.

Rest in peace Ernie!

[Grumpy]

I'm really sorry to hear that Ernie lost his battle with cancer.
He'll be missed.

[Leedskalnin]

Sad to hear that!

He'll be missed

Rest in piece Ernie.