Jerry Pournelle passed away this weekend. He was a large figure in the world of sci-fi. For the writing, first last and always. Like John Scalzi (here), for me, Jerry's story with Larry Niven, Footfall, was the first big story by Niven and Pournelle that I fell into.

I came to know Jerry more directly through his website, Chaos Manor, one of the first working writer's websites on the web. Jerry was a computer writer from the beginning, before anyone knew what that particular career was to come to mean.

I didn't agree with him politically on very many things. I don't share many of those views. But, I still read and paid attention to what he had to say. Before he had his stroke, which slowed him down some, Jerry wrote and corresponded with many different people, from a wide variety of backgrounds and political outlooks, and even when you disagreed with his view, he was always happy to engage with you about it.

There were, ultimately, two big things that I took from Chaos Manor itself. The first one was his and his wife's computer program for teaching reading. When my daughter reached the age where she could benefit from it, I downloaded the Pournelle's reading program and showed my daughter how to use it. So, in effect, Jerry taught my daughter the nuts and bolts of reading. I am forever in his, and Roberta's, debt.

The second thing I took was from the essay "How to get my job". That's the other part of what he did, and the Chaos Manor writings only brush up against it. Jerry was always an advocate for the writer, first and foremost, and he worked hard behind the scenes to make sure that SFWA worked as a writer's organization, regardless of where you were in your career. I'm just beginning at the 'pro' part of being a writer, but I know that as I step along that path, Jerry Pournelle's work for the generations that came before me is going to matter to what opportunities I and my peers have to make a living at this gig. Here too, I will always be in Dr. Jerry Pournelle's debt.

Go forth, good man, and follow the path we must all travel. I hope to meet with you someday, and hear some good stories you've discovered in the meantime.