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IN MEMORIAM
KEN ROSS

It is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of Ken Ross. Ken suffered a heart attack at his home in early October and did not recover.

Those of you who read these pages will know that Ken has been the main contributor of all things related to the Mac and 8-bit World and I will miss him greatly, both as a contributor and a friend.

I am not sure how long Ken had been a member of ICPUG. He started writing for the then paper newsletter in March/April 1995. In those days most of the writing in the newsletter was about PCs and Amigas. Ken wanted to redress the balance, and respond to some complaints, by writing about the old 8-bit computers of Commodore. His Ken About ... series began and later in the year he took over as distributor for the club's Commodore PET Software Library.

When, at the end of 1998, ICPUG moved into cyberspace Ken continued to write regular articles for the ICPUG site. This was in addition to running his own Commodore specific web site, where he continued to run the Software Library by converting the files into a downloadable format. It was at this time that my personal association with Ken really started. In earlier times I had supplied Ken with software and information on the COMAL programming language, which he also enthused about, but it was now that we were in regular contact. I have never actually met Ken, not knowingly anyway, but we struck up a good relationship via e-mail. We have had considerable banter on the merits or otherwise of the Apple Mac computers and, more recently, on the future of the US space programme! Ken had continued to write his Ken About ... articles, in his own inimitable style, the last being in early September. Not the easiest of writers to edit, Ken nevertheless came up with some very useful information and I have relied on him to cover the 8-bit and Mac computer worlds, while I concentrate on all things PC.

Apart from his presence on the ICPUG site and his own web pages, Ken took an active part in the 8-bit mailing lists. He also created Video CDs for various retro computer shows. The VCDs Ken created and subsequently copied to me will now have a more special meaning.

As well as the Ken About ... series, Ken also devised a series of cartoon strips, Captain Commodore, for which his wife Maureen provided the illustrations.

I have always thought that Captain Commodore, who in the cartoons gave tips for using Commodore 8-bit computers, was Ken's alter ego! It is a very sad day indeed to hear that the Cap'n has performed his last good deed.

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