I remember almost two decades ago driving down College Avenue seeing a dude with long, curly blonde hair briskly walking along the sidewalk. “Hey, that’s Patrick” I told Antonella. He was taking a familiar UMW jaunt from Campbell to DuPont Hall, heading back to headquarters of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT). Antonella remarked on the long, golden locks following loosely in his wake: “cavallo pazzo” (crazy horse). We’ve been calling him that for near on 20 years now.
“Patrick explains Mashups” Image credit: Alan Levine
Patrick was my colleague at UMW from December 2005 until Spring 2011. Patrick died far too soon just a few days ago.
The Bullpen. From R to L, Joe McMahon, Martha Burtis, Andy Rush, Patrick MJ, and Jim Groom. Image credit: Jerry Slezak
One of my favorite memories of Patrick is when he finally got tired of my cocky shit talking on the emergent field of Digital Humanities and told me to go fuck myself. A little bit of humble pie was always the order of the day at DTLT. He was absolutely a pillar of the weird, sensitive, and unrelentingly honest spirit that made DTLT what it was. We started work the same exact day in the same year doing the very same job, and I think we smoked the same amount of cigarettes. He was thoughtful, funny, and a genuinely nerdy guy that could move as easily between Medieval Literature as RDF. In fact, he saw those two arcane languages as fundamentally related.
Patrick imagining the ‘fishtank.’ Image credit: Jerry Slezak
His vision of open educational data as a kind of ‘fishtank’ that could be visualized, made accessible, and ultimately routable was the clearest articulation of what would ultimately become a holy grail for our team. Namely, open education as a dynamic, personable process rather than static content. Moreover, his refusal to tie his idea to any specific technology, like WordPress, made it all that much more noble and abstractable—which is very much where he lived.
Patrick at work in the DTLT bullpen circa 2008. Image credit: Jerry Slezak
His life and work impacted me on a personal and professional level, and he will be missed. I’m sorry to have to even write any of this.
R.I.P. Cavallo Pazzo.
Very nice post on honor of your friend. Sorry for your loss.
Thanks Jason, Patrick was definitely a character!
I am crushed to hear this sad news and am so warmed by such a genuine tribute to the man of the golden mane. Those times when we could get to “know” each other so well through real channels of exchanged (aka blogs) that when I got to meet P M-J in person (first at Faculty Academy 2007) it was just picking up the conversation.
Of course I had to reach in my photo memory bin and find the photo of the DTLT Fab Four at that Faculty Academy – Andy, Jerry, Jimmy, and Patrick
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/501512281/
plus a fun one when I visited Patrick for a THATcamp and did a live ds106 radio demo
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/6176689382/
and the sweet irony there that the photo was taken by another departed giant soul, George Brett.
Oh this is such hard news to read and I am so damn glad you took the time to share this tribute – “Cavallo Pazzo” is a legendary moniker.
When I got the email from Jeff McClurken via Dan Cohen (who Patrick worked with for years) I was incredulous. Turns out this post is pretty much a selfish way to try and make sense of it. Glad I wrote it, and truly sad I had to.
A perfect tribute. I can’t believe he’s gone.
Me neither, seems really weird. Time kinda collapses and I can here his bizarre laugh as I write this comment.
I soo remember the “go fuck yourself” moment. I was the only other person in the room. Forever etched in my brain.
What a moment, I drove a perfectly well-mannered and nice guy to the edge. Damn, I was a prick. But the other side of that is we were all in it together. That bullpen was one of the greatest places on earth for me then (and still now). As much as I fought Martha and Jerry on it at the beginning—trying to hide out in Campbell Hall like a jackass—-seeing all of us in the bullpen and Patrick wearing that telltale smirk, it makes me really happy and sad all at once.
Tears, and cheers to Patrick.