Tribute to Marc Orchant
There are people who are just good. You meet them and you become instant friends. You know you can turn to them if you need anything and they will be there for you. You can chat with them for hours and feel like you’ve known them forever. They support you and motivate you to be a better person… and even if you’ve met them only once, you know you’ll never ever forget them.
Marc Orchant (1957-2007) was like this and I still miss him, so I decided to dedicate the Productive!Magazine to him. If he hadn’t died, he would have co-founded this project with me.
Productive!Magazine is dedicated to the memory of Marc Orchant.
I’d come to know Marc by reading one of his blogs. We shared the same passions: gadgetry and computers (both had Toshiba M200 TabletPCs) and Getting Things Done methodology.
When I launched Nozbe in February 2007 he wrote a great review of my new web app on his ZDnet blog “Office Evolution” and supported me as one of the first users (ID #101).
We kept in touch and when in Summer 2007 I was invited by Ismael Ghalmi to be a panelist/speaker at the Office2.0 Conference he encouraged me to go and we met there.
We had a great time and on the last day of the conference Marc and his wife Sue, along with their friend Oliver Starr invited me and my wife for a dinner at their favorite San Francisco restaurant: “House of Nanking”.
This is a photo I took of Marc and his wife Sue when we were all waiting in line for the restaurant:
We promised to stay in touch and see each other again but he suddenly died of heart attack on 9th December the same year. Read Oliver Starr’s “In Memorium”
Marc was a great blogger, he wrote for:
- Platform Agnostic (his personal blog)
- Office Zealot - Marc’s Outlook on Productivity
- On the Run with TabletPC podcast with James Kendrick
- The TabletPC Web blog
- Office Evolution at ZDnet
- Blognation USA
You can still check out his Twitter channel
He left his lovely wife Sue and his two children: Rebecca and Jason. If you knew Marc, please consider donating to help his family (Oliver Starr handles the donations)
Tags: Blogging, Getting Things Done, gtd, Marc Orchant
November 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Thank you so much, Michael. What a beautiful and fitting tribute. My dad would have been (to use his words) totally psyched.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
We, Marc’s mom and dad thank you for your beautiful tribute to our wonderful son. Glenda and Norm Orchant
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Michael,
Thank you for this beautiful tribute.
Our brother-in-law Marc was this and so much more. A spark for anyone who wanted or needed to be ignited by his great spirit.
Best wishes with this wonderful project!
November 25th, 2008 at 3:12 am
How sad. I had no idea Marc had passed away. I use to be a devoted follower of one of his blogs but lost touch when I suffered a massive stroke two years ago (I am the same age as Marc). He will be missed.