It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing of one of our members, Stephen Chapman.
Known to most of you as felgall, Stephen has been part of these forums for as long as I can remember. I knew him mostly from the JavaScript forum where he could often be found helping others with the programming language he so obviously loved. But I also dealt with him as editor of the JavaScript channel where I came to appreciate the very depth and breadth of his knowledge.
There’s no denying that Stephen was a colorful character and most of you that knew him will have run up against some of his more passionate replies. But, in the same breath let’s remember what an incredible contribution he made to SitePoint forums — he was a Community Award Winner, as well as an Advisor for the Hosting Team. His sharp wit and sarcasm could be extremely funny and he certainly made a lasting impression on many of our members. His death came as a shock to us all.
If Stephen is looking down on us, I hope he’ll raise a smile as I say:
Stephen was one of the people who helped me when I first came to the forums, and made me feel it was a place worth frequenting. He was a great believer in doing things right and making things accessible, not just taking the easiest route.
Rest in peace, @felgall. You made a great contribution to these forums with your depth of knowledge, and you’ll be sorely missed.
I’ve known Stephen on the forums for years and also come across his posts across many other forums over the decades and always valued his advice and great depth of knowledge. He wasn’t the easiest character to get along with but I gave him a lot of respect.
@felgall is the only one I look up to in the PHP forum so with his passing, it’s going to be hard. This is the 2nd time I lost someone I look up to. This year isn’t a good year. So far, I’ve counted 20 deaths in the last couple of months. But farewell wise one.
Yes, very sad. Who is left now to keep us on the straight and narrow over HTML3 and earlier, Netscape, SGML, XHTML and the like? The web feels so monotone without him.
He has such a broad understanding of things web, it’s sad to think of all that learning going to waste … although at least he did record some of it. Only a couple of week ago he was helping me understand a tricky JS concept. What a shame to lose him.
I really only knew him through passing and reading his in-depth responses (with the occasional argument). The amount of knowledge he has imparted across many will not be easily forgotten and I’m glad we got to call this place one of his hangout spots (if not his home).
Thanks for all of your hard work and contributions @felgall. It will be missed.
I was just wondering why I didn’t see any of his post in recent days until I saw this thread… sad news! He was a person I often disagreed with but he was a very active member and an experienced programmer and gave a lot to this community. I always enjoyed his participation in the discussions. He will be missed.
I’m a bit of a shock about this honestly… I’m used to seeing him a lot in most of the threads I’ve visited… Though I don’t know him personally, I can certain say that he is a big part of this forum even before I joined here… Rest in Peace felgall…
I am stunned by this news. On innumerable occasions, Stephan has helped me, as he did so many others, with my code. Sufficed to say that I am saddened by this loss, but know Stephan will live on in all our much-improved scripts. RIP felgall.
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