I saw a reference to this in another thread and thought it referred to the "death" of the old Icrontic. Then I saw another mention and figured I should check things out, leading me here.
I never knew Mortin personally, but Icrontic was the first Tech site I ever joined. I didn't post much at first. It seems odd, but I was almost afraid to speak up. Icrontic was such a tight community (with the occasional feud you'll find in any family) that I felt like an interloper in some ways. I had recently changed careers and had begun my first job as a computer tech. If you knew how many times I was able to quickly find the answer I needed just by searching the wealth of material at Icrontic you wouldn't believe it. When I stumbled across the Folding business it added a new dimension to my Icrontic involvement.
Lars, the only thing I could add is that Keith was truly a very special person. He touched so many lives - hundreds who knew him personally, and untold thousands like myself who never met him yet owe him so much.
I'm sure it saddens eveyone that a great person has left us all..
My brother is bipolar and I've seen him at his highs and lows. He is a brillant bloke and is very talentented with visual design and computers.
This is an insidious problem, but those affected including my brother are very likable, loveable people.
I cannot pretend to understand the emotions that his family are feeling right now.
I just hope that those brilliant minds among us affected by bipolar will succeed.
I wish everyone with this problem the best, as they have some of the most brilliant minds that I've seen, and I hope that my brother does not meet a similar fate.
In the depths of sadness of today, we must try to pick ourselves up and try to persevere in the hopes that tomorrow will bring fulfillment.
I am out of town and am just now reading this thread.
To all of my friends and acquaintences here at SM, please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend. I never had the pleasure, unfortunately, of his association.
To his family, my deepest sympathy and my admiration for allowing his body to be used to save the lives of others.
My deepest condolences to Mortin/Keiths family. I personnaly only spoke with him a few times but was and still am thankfull for what he did for the pc enthuist community.
This really cought me off gaurd. Like many of you I built my first system with the help of icrontic. It was a Kt7a-raid system. I often felt like icrontic was the perfect site. It had just the right combo of PC facts and futuristic ambitions to keep you hooked. I remember comming home every day to check the icrontic news and see what I could sit and pounder about for the rest of the evening. I still type in www.icrontic.com hopeing the news would be like it once was.
Komete, I know exactly what you mean - icrontic was my homepage forever - right up until this site was born. I checked the front page religiously, and most often wasn't disappointed - it was like the ultimate clearinghouse for updates, drivers, and tech news. I totally loved that site..
Some will see my forum name a haze two miles down a strech of concrete named F@H93.
I have contacted all of my links from the past, and caught a few off guard; as I was.
Completely not off topic... Folding@Home should be run every where an internet connection is available! Thank you Mortin for providing the means for my current strength in this cause. What stemed from being the second post in the very first thread that created team icrontics(rip mortin/apu), I have since continued the realism of life. After I left, I started my own unsanctioned team (titled by team number only), and have constantly been the underdog, reaching as high as mid 30's with 52 active members... only just over a year ago!
This (hopfully massive) plug for Folding@Home was mearly a plot to explode my emotions that 'Mortin' used as fuel for the people that knew him, or should have. He had an energy that reached to everyone, and mostly the ones that combated him!
I just got back from the memorial in gainesville. A lot of people from high school came down, and it was nice to see them. Too bad the circumstances couldn't have been better. I saw Keith's mom there. She seemed to be handling it much better than I had expected.
Thanks for posting all your memories and condolences. I know Peyton, his girlfriend, and his mother really appreciate it.
hey everybody. Thanks for your support you have shown for a wonderful individual. Things are still tough here (@ his girlfriend's house still) but we are making it through. I am returning home today to Winter Park after a very emotional couple of days.
The tears have yet to stop falling, but we will be fine...hopefully. If anything this has inspired me to get back on my meds, no matter how they make me feel.
Keith understood this quote far better than I had expected him to when I first threw it out to him a few years ago:
Pigflipper, I don't know you well at all. But I'm very proud of you for going back on your meds. I have a friend who struggles with staying on meds all the time, and know it's not easy. Good luck.
My mother was a therapist and she specialized with young adults. She always said that we all get depressed and most of us will go through some period of life that could label us clinically depressed. Being Bipolar (manic depressant) does not make you a psycho or anything less than anyone else, no more than having brown hair does.
The medication, if properly administered, is there to stabilize the moods. If they make you physically feel bad, check with your physician. There are many different meds out there, switching may be the answer. Zoloft seems to be the leading version for limiting the side effects... Also... just because you are on the medication now does NOT mean you will need to take it forever. Hormones, stress, diet, age... they all have a part in depression. It's not a curse.
Your doctor may not have said anything about it, but therapy along with the meds is really the best way to work out traumas. Talking does wonders...
Look around this thread and you see it everywhere. the large community Keith inspired is a place of warmth, hope and friendship. No one is truly alone. Keith brought us together and, in turn, we bring others together and that is his legacy.
This is a community and we all help each other. We help fix, mod, tweak and destroy our own and each others PCs. We celebrate our successes and we band together in our sadness.
If you look out at this world and sometimes all that you may see is bad; in the news or down the street... all you have to do is look around this thread and all you will see is what is good. So here we are...at a place in the digital void...where at a time when we are sad at the loss of one friend...we can find reason to smile about the many other friends we continue to gain.
I'm sure Keith's mother, Shirley, will come to read through this thread in time and I hope she takes from it that Keith's life had meaning and that she's not alone.
I'm sure Keith's mother, Shirley, will come to read through this thread in time and I hope she takes from it that Keith's life had meaning and that she's not alone.
I knew Keith way back when Icrontic was still Apu's Hardware. To me he was always a friend and even let me work as a Moderator and hardware reviewer for Icrontic for about 2 years. I probably learned most of what I know about computers today because of him and guys like MediaMan, Clecho, Leonardo, EQuito, ImaginAsian, and many others who got their start at Icrontic. I looked up to him a lot.
I'm shocked to hear that he has left us. Even though I never met him in person, or even once spoke to him over the phone, he is still someone that I will never forget.
One of the burdens that Keith's mother bears is that the circurcumstances surrounding Keith's death are still unclear and remain under investigation. Please pray that God will help bring to light the truth about this tragic event -- whatever it may be -- so that at least on this issue she can be given some closure. Your prayers can make a difference.
In Memory of
Keith Allen “Mortin” Whitsitt
October 26, 1984 - October 23, 2004
A Loving Son, Grandson, Boy Friend & Friend.
Sylvan Christian Junior High (Grand Rapids), Maclay High School Graduate (Tallahassee), & University of Florida Student (Gainesville).
A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer & Charter Microsoft Systems Administrator.
Founder of World-Wide Internet Communities & An Expert in Computer Hardware.
Creator of Teaching Media Designed To Educate Medical Students.
Team Member of the “Folding@Home” Biological Research Program.
Ambitious, Hard Working & Professional.
A Gifted Leader With Knowledge Well Beyond His Years.
An Avid Runner & Weightlifter.
Kind, Fun Loving, Mischievous, Friendly, Helpful, & Generous.
A Child of God In Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I believe it helps to put a name to events in life that blow us away. It helps us get some perspective and helps us come to grips things.
The loss of Keith Allen Whitsitt to this world can only be seen as “unjust.” It is unjust that his mother and father should lose their only son so senselessly. It is unjust that a kind, witty, good- natured, and loving person like Keith should have lost his life. It is unjust that someone with such tremendous talent and potential could die so young and tragically. It is unjust that the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that Keith possessed and offered to the world has gone with him. It’s just plain wrong.
As a pastor and spiritual brother, I am here today to remind all of us – including me – that the Lord God truly understands what it is like to receive injustice. Jesus never said or did anything to deserve a death sentence. But the forces of hatred and darkness and death drove many of the people of his day to condemn him to the cross – a Roman torture instrument designed to publicly humiliate it’s victims.
Christians of faith believe that Jesus was more than just a human being who tragically and unjustly died on the cross two thousand years ago. Jesus was “Emmanuel” – God with us – the presence of God tangibly in our world. This means that the God who created us truly understands what it is like to be a human. Through experience, God knows what it is like to suffer and God knows what it is like to die for seemingly no purpose.
And yet, the Christian message is ultimately about hope – about how Jesus took all of the pain and injustice and hatred and violence toward him and redeemed it by defeating it – by rising again. No matter how final death seems, death cannot defeat the Lord of life.
None of us can change what happened to Keith – though we all wish we could. Yet we can find comfort today. There is comfort in the fact that – even in his brief time on earth – he was able contribute more to the world that many of us can contribute in a lifetime. Because of Keith’s work on the internet – which began when he was only about 14 years old – an enormous amount of people have been enriched through by leadership, knowledge and wisdom about computer technology.
I have been asked by his friends on the internet to share with you that the number of people Keith influenced for the better though his website could not be held in any room – that it would take football stadiums to hold all of the people that he influenced through his life and work. Some of these people – twice his age – owe their careers, and close-knit technical communities to Keith.
I’ve been told that Keith created a few controversies as his mother can attest to. He made a lot of people mad at times but he got people to think...to communicate. Keith was a truly good human being. The internet communities that he brought into being are now a part of his legacy.
We can take comfort today in the knowledge that Keith’s life force – his vision, giving spirit and inspiration did not died with his body. Many of you here were touched by Keith’s indomitable spirit, energy, and willingness to serve. You have been touch by his wit and intensity and curiosity. The inertia of his spirit remains with us – and we can thank God for that.
Even after his death, Keith’s organs gave new hope to seven different people who were facing their own tragedies. I know they are thankful – and they too are part of Keith’s legacy.
Finally we can take comfort in the sure and certain hope that we will see him again – that the powers of darkness have not had the last word – and that today Keith has taken up residence in God’s Kingdom. As one of his friends put it, Keith was a shining light in the world. He was blessed with rare and God given gifts. And he used them well. The world is better for having Keith as a part of it.
What we are left with after this tragedy is this consolation: comfort in the our faith and our experience that God can take a lousy, rotten, evil, terrible, tragedy like this one and redeem it – make something good of it. Now the Lord of the Universe calls all of us to absorb Keith’s light – the bright spirit of the love and service and brilliance and kindness he released – and shine with the same spirit in our own lives and in our own ways.
I believe that is what Keith would have us do – and what the Lord desires for all of us. Thank you Lord for giving us Keith. Amen.
Pastor Tim Larson
October 30, 2004
Grand Rapids, Michigan
0
KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited October 2004
A wonderful eulogy, Pastor. I'm glad that Keith leaves a legacy of touching so many people in a positive way, and I hope amidst this tragic event that everyone can see the profound and positive impact Keith had on all of us.
Thank you Pastor Larson. The words and the heart felt emotion that you expressed in that eulogy describes the life that still lives on in the world. Keith will be missed but he is not gone, just moved on to be with the Lord.
I pulled some memorable quotes from various places (this thread, personal notes that were mailed to me, notes that came with paypal donations, etc.) and made them into a card that I am going to be giving to Keith's mom today. I figured that I would make it available on the site for anybody who wants to download it. You can print it out double sided and fold it and keep it as a keepsake for this, truly global, memorial service.
I'd like to announce a private forum for friends and family of Mortin. It is not designed to exclude, but is being kept private to make sure that everybody who has access to it has good intentions and is not going to go there to harass people or hurt anybody. I think we all know what I'm talking about.
If anybody who cared about Keith would like access to the forum, please PM me and I will grant access. I would ask that anybody who wants access have someone else who can "vouch" for them if I am not familiar with the name. I'm sure there won't be any problems with any of this.
Basically we also want the private forum to be the souce of official information about the case. Obviously rumors and misinformation spread quickly in such a fluid medium of communication. Keith's mother has access to the forum and will be the only source of "official" information.
Let it be known right now, publicly, that the investigation now operates around the idea that KEITH WHITSITT DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE. There are far too many inconsistencies and bits of information to allow suicide to fit into the picture. For anyone who thought that his struggle with bipolar disorder had anything to do with his death, please get that idea out of your head. He was murdered.
I've been away from S-M for a spell, and only just tonight heard about Mortin. So very sad. I'm one of the old Icrontic folks, and would not be here had Keith not formed Icrontic way back when.
There was controversy and bad feelings when Icrontic shut down, but put in perspective, anything said or done way back when is, by comparison, so trivial when a person's life has ended this suddenly.
I did not know Keith, and I'm not sure if I ever directly communicated with him. That doesn't matter. He had an influence on my life, and the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of others via his websites. Think of the fun that's been had, the problems solved, the people brought together because of his sacrifice of money time and talent to put together what has become Short Media. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
His passing is sad news indeed. My thoughts are with his family, and my thanks go to him for what he did in his life.
Comments
I've made a new thread for Ghetto Hardware pics so I don't destroy anyone's modem connection: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22493
I never knew Mortin personally, but Icrontic was the first Tech site I ever joined. I didn't post much at first. It seems odd, but I was almost afraid to speak up. Icrontic was such a tight community (with the occasional feud you'll find in any family) that I felt like an interloper in some ways. I had recently changed careers and had begun my first job as a computer tech. If you knew how many times I was able to quickly find the answer I needed just by searching the wealth of material at Icrontic you wouldn't believe it. When I stumbled across the Folding business it added a new dimension to my Icrontic involvement.
Lars, the only thing I could add is that Keith was truly a very special person. He touched so many lives - hundreds who knew him personally, and untold thousands like myself who never met him yet owe him so much.
My brother is bipolar and I've seen him at his highs and lows. He is a brillant bloke and is very talentented with visual design and computers.
This is an insidious problem, but those affected including my brother are very likable, loveable people.
I cannot pretend to understand the emotions that his family are feeling right now.
I just hope that those brilliant minds among us affected by bipolar will succeed.
I wish everyone with this problem the best, as they have some of the most brilliant minds that I've seen, and I hope that my brother does not meet a similar fate.
In the depths of sadness of today, we must try to pick ourselves up and try to persevere in the hopes that tomorrow will bring fulfillment.
Lokky H
To all of my friends and acquaintences here at SM, please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend. I never had the pleasure, unfortunately, of his association.
To his family, my deepest sympathy and my admiration for allowing his body to be used to save the lives of others.
R.I.P.
Always entertaining.
Tis very sad, my condolences.
This really cought me off gaurd. Like many of you I built my first system with the help of icrontic. It was a Kt7a-raid system. I often felt like icrontic was the perfect site. It had just the right combo of PC facts and futuristic ambitions to keep you hooked. I remember comming home every day to check the icrontic news and see what I could sit and pounder about for the rest of the evening. I still type in www.icrontic.com hopeing the news would be like it once was.
Icrontic "a perfect shard of glass" ...
Thank you Keith RIP
RIP Keith.
I have contacted all of my links from the past, and caught a few off guard; as I was.
Completely not off topic... Folding@Home should be run every where an internet connection is available! Thank you Mortin for providing the means for my current strength in this cause. What stemed from being the second post in the very first thread that created team icrontics(rip mortin/apu), I have since continued the realism of life. After I left, I started my own unsanctioned team (titled by team number only), and have constantly been the underdog, reaching as high as mid 30's with 52 active members... only just over a year ago!
This (hopfully massive) plug for Folding@Home was mearly a plot to explode my emotions that 'Mortin' used as fuel for the people that knew him, or should have. He had an energy that reached to everyone, and mostly the ones that combated him!
Remember him,
GAb
Thanks for posting all your memories and condolences. I know Peyton, his girlfriend, and his mother really appreciate it.
The tears have yet to stop falling, but we will be fine...hopefully. If anything this has inspired me to get back on my meds, no matter how they make me feel.
Keith understood this quote far better than I had expected him to when I first threw it out to him a few years ago:
"I miss the comfort in being sad" - Kurt Cobain
The medication, if properly administered, is there to stabilize the moods. If they make you physically feel bad, check with your physician. There are many different meds out there, switching may be the answer. Zoloft seems to be the leading version for limiting the side effects... Also... just because you are on the medication now does NOT mean you will need to take it forever. Hormones, stress, diet, age... they all have a part in depression. It's not a curse.
Your doctor may not have said anything about it, but therapy along with the meds is really the best way to work out traumas. Talking does wonders...
Look around this thread and you see it everywhere. the large community Keith inspired is a place of warmth, hope and friendship. No one is truly alone. Keith brought us together and, in turn, we bring others together and that is his legacy.
This is a community and we all help each other. We help fix, mod, tweak and destroy our own and each others PCs. We celebrate our successes and we band together in our sadness.
If you look out at this world and sometimes all that you may see is bad; in the news or down the street... all you have to do is look around this thread and all you will see is what is good. So here we are...at a place in the digital void...where at a time when we are sad at the loss of one friend...we can find reason to smile about the many other friends we continue to gain.
I'm sure Keith's mother, Shirley, will come to read through this thread in time and I hope she takes from it that Keith's life had meaning and that she's not alone.
I knew Keith way back when Icrontic was still Apu's Hardware. To me he was always a friend and even let me work as a Moderator and hardware reviewer for Icrontic for about 2 years. I probably learned most of what I know about computers today because of him and guys like MediaMan, Clecho, Leonardo, EQuito, ImaginAsian, and many others who got their start at Icrontic. I looked up to him a lot.
I'm shocked to hear that he has left us. Even though I never met him in person, or even once spoke to him over the phone, he is still someone that I will never forget.
R.I.P Keith
Pastor Tim
Keith Allen “Mortin” Whitsitt
October 26, 1984 - October 23, 2004
A Loving Son, Grandson, Boy Friend & Friend.
Sylvan Christian Junior High (Grand Rapids), Maclay High School Graduate (Tallahassee), & University of Florida Student (Gainesville).
A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer & Charter Microsoft Systems Administrator.
Founder of World-Wide Internet Communities & An Expert in Computer Hardware.
Creator of Teaching Media Designed To Educate Medical Students.
Team Member of the “Folding@Home” Biological Research Program.
Ambitious, Hard Working & Professional.
A Gifted Leader With Knowledge Well Beyond His Years.
An Avid Runner & Weightlifter.
Kind, Fun Loving, Mischievous, Friendly, Helpful, & Generous.
A Child of God In Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I believe it helps to put a name to events in life that blow us away. It helps us get some perspective and helps us come to grips things.
The loss of Keith Allen Whitsitt to this world can only be seen as “unjust.” It is unjust that his mother and father should lose their only son so senselessly. It is unjust that a kind, witty, good- natured, and loving person like Keith should have lost his life. It is unjust that someone with such tremendous talent and potential could die so young and tragically. It is unjust that the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that Keith possessed and offered to the world has gone with him. It’s just plain wrong.
As a pastor and spiritual brother, I am here today to remind all of us – including me – that the Lord God truly understands what it is like to receive injustice. Jesus never said or did anything to deserve a death sentence. But the forces of hatred and darkness and death drove many of the people of his day to condemn him to the cross – a Roman torture instrument designed to publicly humiliate it’s victims.
Christians of faith believe that Jesus was more than just a human being who tragically and unjustly died on the cross two thousand years ago. Jesus was “Emmanuel” – God with us – the presence of God tangibly in our world. This means that the God who created us truly understands what it is like to be a human. Through experience, God knows what it is like to suffer and God knows what it is like to die for seemingly no purpose.
And yet, the Christian message is ultimately about hope – about how Jesus took all of the pain and injustice and hatred and violence toward him and redeemed it by defeating it – by rising again. No matter how final death seems, death cannot defeat the Lord of life.
None of us can change what happened to Keith – though we all wish we could. Yet we can find comfort today. There is comfort in the fact that – even in his brief time on earth – he was able contribute more to the world that many of us can contribute in a lifetime. Because of Keith’s work on the internet – which began when he was only about 14 years old – an enormous amount of people have been enriched through by leadership, knowledge and wisdom about computer technology.
I have been asked by his friends on the internet to share with you that the number of people Keith influenced for the better though his website could not be held in any room – that it would take football stadiums to hold all of the people that he influenced through his life and work. Some of these people – twice his age – owe their careers, and close-knit technical communities to Keith.
I’ve been told that Keith created a few controversies as his mother can attest to. He made a lot of people mad at times but he got people to think...to communicate. Keith was a truly good human being. The internet communities that he brought into being are now a part of his legacy.
We can take comfort today in the knowledge that Keith’s life force – his vision, giving spirit and inspiration did not died with his body. Many of you here were touched by Keith’s indomitable spirit, energy, and willingness to serve. You have been touch by his wit and intensity and curiosity. The inertia of his spirit remains with us – and we can thank God for that.
Even after his death, Keith’s organs gave new hope to seven different people who were facing their own tragedies. I know they are thankful – and they too are part of Keith’s legacy.
Finally we can take comfort in the sure and certain hope that we will see him again – that the powers of darkness have not had the last word – and that today Keith has taken up residence in God’s Kingdom. As one of his friends put it, Keith was a shining light in the world. He was blessed with rare and God given gifts. And he used them well. The world is better for having Keith as a part of it.
What we are left with after this tragedy is this consolation: comfort in the our faith and our experience that God can take a lousy, rotten, evil, terrible, tragedy like this one and redeem it – make something good of it. Now the Lord of the Universe calls all of us to absorb Keith’s light – the bright spirit of the love and service and brilliance and kindness he released – and shine with the same spirit in our own lives and in our own ways.
I believe that is what Keith would have us do – and what the Lord desires for all of us. Thank you Lord for giving us Keith. Amen.
Pastor Tim Larson
October 30, 2004
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Thank you, Pastor.
If anybody who cared about Keith would like access to the forum, please PM me and I will grant access. I would ask that anybody who wants access have someone else who can "vouch" for them if I am not familiar with the name. I'm sure there won't be any problems with any of this.
Basically we also want the private forum to be the souce of official information about the case. Obviously rumors and misinformation spread quickly in such a fluid medium of communication. Keith's mother has access to the forum and will be the only source of "official" information.
Let it be known right now, publicly, that the investigation now operates around the idea that KEITH WHITSITT DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE. There are far too many inconsistencies and bits of information to allow suicide to fit into the picture. For anyone who thought that his struggle with bipolar disorder had anything to do with his death, please get that idea out of your head. He was murdered.
PM me if you want access to the private forum.
There was controversy and bad feelings when Icrontic shut down, but put in perspective, anything said or done way back when is, by comparison, so trivial when a person's life has ended this suddenly.
I did not know Keith, and I'm not sure if I ever directly communicated with him. That doesn't matter. He had an influence on my life, and the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of others via his websites. Think of the fun that's been had, the problems solved, the people brought together because of his sacrifice of money time and talent to put together what has become Short Media. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
His passing is sad news indeed. My thoughts are with his family, and my thanks go to him for what he did in his life.