InsideMicrosoft

David Boschmans: Microsoft Loses A Great Guy, Far Too Young

My Opera web browser, normally the king of stability, crashed and completely screwed up my saved tabs, so I’m posting everything old right now, in order to set things right.

Microsoft’s David Boschmans, a Developer Evangelist in Belgium, died two weeks ago at just 32 of an apparent heart condition, leaving behind at a tragically too young age a wife and two year old daughter. I never met Dave, but Miel (Coolz0r) knew him well, as David was the man who brought him into Microsoft, and he’s written a touching post showing his sorrow at this loss.

There’s also a Flickr group where friends can leave photos of David. Here’s the group’s description of David:

He was a kind man, a great team player, always willing to help his colleagues, always ready to solve a difficult problem. He was a real and true evangelist who exerted tremendous influence on his audience and who energized the Belgian DPE team with his energy and enthusiasm. David joined our Microsoft community two years ago in DPE. During this time he has received great recognition and admiration in the Belgian technical developer community. He was one of the visionaries behind our annual Developer & IT Pro Days. Technically savvy, he was one of the main drivers behind the successful introduction of Microsoft’s developer tools in the Belgian market, culminating in the tremendous launch of Visual Studio 2005. David also was one of our most influential bloggers. His last post dates from July 3. After this date he was optimistically caring for his health. He, sadly, lost the battle.

David leaves behind his wife Veerle and his daughter Fien.

Every post I’ve read about David seems to indicate he was a truly special person, and we all have lost something with his passing.

Here’s a slideshow of photos from the group:

You can also leave comments about David here.

August 22nd, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Corporate, General | 2 comments