The passing of Dan Jezek, BrickLink Founder

[Troy]

http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=486223

We regret to announce the sudden and unexpected passing of Dan Jezek, owner and
founder of BrickLink.com. Dan will be greatly missed by all of his family and
many friends at Bricklink and around the world. A memorial fund is being set
up and will be announced at a later date. If you wish to send condolences, you
may do so via e-mail to condolences (at) bricklink.com and they will be passed
on to his family.

[JoshWedin]

How very sad. It is quite possible that no one had more impact on our hobby than Dan, through Bricklink. We owe him a lot.

Thank you for letting us know, Troy.

Josh

[SavaTheAggie]

I know Dan, through Bricklink, has forever changed my life. He will be sorely missed.

--Tony

[eNiGMa]

We owe him a lot, indeed. I know if it wasn't for Dan, many wonderful creations wouldn't have been possible; but deeper than that, he was a good man. Truthfully I didn't know him, but I am left very impressed after reading his eulogy. I'm grateful for everything he did for AFOLs worldwide, and add my voice to the chorus saying he is one of those who will always stick out in the memory of the community.

[Aliencat]

I just can't think of the right words to say (which is very rare for me).
Dan has quite literally changed all of our lives, and made the hobby so much more accessible.
I hope no AFOL who uses Bricklink will ever forget Dan's efforts in making this possible.

[Formendacil]

I was on Bricklink less than an hour ago; this adds a bittersweet twinge to that experience, and a reminder that our online community really is made of people--who are mortal. Bricklink has been a key component of supporting the online community: obviously in the area of providing us with fodder for our MOCs, but also insofar as it has allowed a number of our members to stay in the hobby by supporting their habits with some Bricklink selling on the side. And I am sure that many have had my experience of being able to finally get those sets we wanted as kids, years later when we finally had the money and somewhere to find them. Dan Jezek was a key linchpin in making this dream-fulfilment a reality. His legacy is enormous.

[Count Blacktron]

Dan showed us all a better way to live and created a connected and sharing community. Without his vision, ours would be less. He will be remembered with honor.

[Athos]

Very sad. Apart from the impact on AFOL-dom, he had quite an interesting life story there too: http://www.bricklink.com/danjezek/.

Steve

[Bruce N H]

This is truly sad. Brickbay, along with Lugnet, Brickshelf, and 1000Steine, brought our whole hobby out of the dark ages and really gave the opportunity for the vibrant online community.

Troy, do you know how they are going to do the memorial fund? Is it going to be straight donations, or will some Bricklink sellers get together and say they will donate a percentage of their sales to the fund on certain days. That would seem to be a very appropriate method, and I'm sure many of us would be sure to point our purchases to those stores on those days.

Bruce

[architect]

This news is sad. Thank you Dan for bringing together so many fans. Your site allowed fans around the world to create great mocs and hold large conventions and displays.

Ben

[Quickblade22]

Very sad news, especially concerning someone so young. I remember when it was still Brick Bay and the excitement I had when I found this treasure of a site. Dan fulfilled countless dreams with his initiative. I know my experience in this hobby has been greatly and positively impacted by Dan and his efforts.

[Tower of Iron Will]

Very sad news, especially concerning someone so young. I remember when it was still Brick Bay and the excitement I had when I found this treasure of a site. Dan fulfilled countless dreams with his initiative. I know my experience in this hobby has been greatly and positively impacted by Dan and his efforts.

I too remember when it was Brick Bay and how happy I was by the money I could save. It allowed my hobby to continue and grow and could not to this day imagine or quantify how limited my LEGO collection would be now. Yet, it would be wrong just to only focus on the monitary aspect. By reading the previous comments and just taking a moment to reflect on how many lives Dan affected over the years, one could only hope to be so successful in one's life as he did.

I did not have the benefit of knowing Dan, but I sure wish I did. I guess I just took it for granted that, in just a few clicks, I could have exactly the right bricks and figures on their way from all over the world, whether from Ohio, Hong Kong, or Norway. Wow, he will be missed.
-Tower

[Throndor]

That site was the site that brought me to castle, and took me a step further into Lego entirely. I was bored one day about 3 years ago, so I decided to go online just to see if there were any really cool MoC's, and in my searchbox appeared this link to a site called Bricklink. I looked and thought about all the things I could build with those grey bricks. And so it began. I owe this man my number one hobby, and a solid fifteen percent of my life. He will be missed by all Bricklink-goers.

[rogue27]

He was born only 15 days after I was, and, like me, was into computers and lego. I bet I would have liked him if we met in person.

His efforts have definitely impacted my life, and it is sad and shocking to hear that he is gone.

[Fry_slayer]

Like many of you I have never met him in real life but looking back his founding of Bricklink definitely have an impact on my life in a scale that cannot be truely comprehended. Adding to the weight of news is the fact his passing come at the golden age of his life, I would hazard a guess many of us here are around his age which in retrospec have us look into mirrors with a second glance on our own lives.

I am still more of a visual person, and thus created this special strip in honor of him.

http://bricklives.blogspot.com/2010/10/ ... klink.html