That was a beautiful tribute. I didn’t know him, but feel like I do now. The skype image at the bottom broke my heart. God bless you and all who were close to Marc.

May him rest peacefully

soda

My condolences and best wishes to his family.

Dan,

Wonderful idea about the Amazon affiliate. I just posted a link (http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=733) to a new Amazon affiliate account I setup where everything will go to the Orchant family. Marc and I have been having some great conversations about the Kindle and I thought it was fitting to make this post since 10% of a Kindle purchase will go to support the Orchant family. I plan to order one myself through the Associate link to add to my support for the family.

James, thanks for the moving entry. I’ll follow Kevin’s lead and add my thoughts to your moving post as a way to capture the memories we have of Marc in a single post.

I met Marc in person back in 2004 at the MSN Search Champs conference held in Seattle. He struck me as a very intelligent person who also had a smile on his face and intently listened to even someone like me. I then started following his blogs and podcasts and had the pleasure of chatting with Marc in person at 3 or 4 more events (including CES, Gnomedex, and more Search Champs events) and my latest memory was of sitting down with Marc at Gnomedex just a few months ago where we swapped iPhone stories and he showed off his Plantronics Phone Booth headset. He then hooked me up with Plantronics so I could get an eval unit that has allowed me to podcast on the road for MoTR.

I’ve chatted with Marc numerous times via email and online forums with our latest “debate” concerning the Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader just 2 weeks ago.

I consider Marc my ZDNet blog mentor since it was his Office blog that inspired me to start looking at the ZDNet blogs. I then contacted Marc to tell him I was thinking of submitting a proposal to start a mobile blog, but I didn’t want to step on his toes since he blogged about mobile stuff (mainly Tablets) on his ZDNet blog. He gave me some good advice and encouraged me to go for it and now a year and a half later my ZDNet Mobile Gadgeteer blog is going strong, thanks in large part to Marc.

He was an amazing person who I had an extremely high level of respect for and my heart hurts so much to know that I won’t be hanging out with Marc at the Tablet PC meetup at CES next month. I am still in shock that he is gone and am praying for his family and friends who are also in pain today.

Thank you Microsoft for helping Marc and I cross paths. I am a better person for knowing Marc and may just have to order a Kindle in his memory since he made some very convincing arguments to me just before he passed away.

God Bless you Marc and let’s get together and chat about mobile devices when I join you in heaven.

Folks,
Marc was always helpful to me. Is there a page with an Amazon affil. link so I can order our Christmas junk – with his family receiving the commission?

RIP Marc.

Rest in Peace Marc. You will definitely not be forgotten.

Thank you James and Kevin for your posts.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Marc, but I listened to the Tablet PC podcast religiously. Marc and James kept me company on Saturdays while I took care of chores around the house. I am terribly sad that I will not hear his wisdom in my ears again, and am heartbroken for the loss to his family.

Thank you James and Kevin. I was very moved by your words. Marc was about the same age my mother was when I lost her in 2005.

I will remember Marc.

A fitting tribute James –
He will be missed.

Thanks for this James. I only came into contact with Marc a few times via email, but each time he was kind, curious and gracious. I feel I’ve got to know him a bit better through your post.

I feel you James, indeed the community have lost a great man. May The Man rest in peace.

>>>Mike, it was at the top when it was first announced last night, this is James latest post.

Not everyone is online 24/7. I was offline from 8:30PM last night til 9AM today, so this was the first post I saw.

I see he added a line. That makes it clearer for newcomers.

I hate death.

I won’t be blogging today. It just doesn’t seem right somehow and I hope people understand and respect that. However, I would like to share some thoughts on Marc. I was going to do that in a post, but I don’t want to take away from what James has said so well.

Marc is one the most influential reasons that I do what I do today. When I put a two-year plan together in 2005 that would enable me to quit my IT career to focus on writing, I reached out to Marc for thoughts. He in turn directed me to the editors of Weblogs, Inc and I had a Skype interview with them almost immediately. During that conversation, I mentioned Marc’s guidance and I was practically hired on the spot. His name carried that much weight and respect.

Later that year, November of 2005, I had the pleasure of meeting Marc in person for the first time. He and I shared a hotel room in NYC for a Weblogs weekend conference. I’ll never forget walking through Times Square with Marc when he stopped me to hand me his Palm Treo. “Can you get my picture with Times Square in the background?” Of course I could and did. I only wish now I had thought to have someone else take our picture together there.

Unknown to everyone at the conference (there were around 40 people there), I felt ill that entire day. After a full day of discussions we went back to the hotel room while most folks went out on the town. Marc postponed his plans and stayed with me back at the room even though I was very sick at that point. In typical Marc fashion, he set up his widescreen Tablet PC and popped in the DVD of “Batman Begins” to give me something to do since I couldn’t move from my bed. Marc hung out with me during that movie and then went on to catch up with everyone only after making sure I was feeling better. He was a giver.

The only other time I saw Marc was at last year’s CES. For many, it was their first time to meet Marc and the requisite handshaking went on. When he got to me however (and I’ll never forget this memory vividly etched in my mind), he walked up with a big hug and said “I already know this guy”. It was great to see him again.

I’ve lost track of the hundreds of e-mails, Skype, and Gizmo conversations I’ve had with Marc. Each of them was informative and fun. I’m really appreciating my Gmail account right now as I searched it last night and there are well over 300 e-mails from Marc.

We’ve lost a great friend in blogosphere but more importantly the world has lost a great man. Anyone with the privilege of knowing Marc would likely agree. Thanks for everything my friend… good times, good conversation and great friendship.

Mike, it was at the top when it was first announced last night, this is James latest post.

i was really rooting for Marc to pull through, My condolences to his friends and family. My prayers are with you. The community has really lost a great man.

This tribute was the first post I saw here today and I kept saying Oh no oh no oh no.

Then I saw the post below it.

I hate to be a nitpicker here, but please add at the top of this post that Orchant has passed away. It wasn’t clear until the next post.

God rest his soul. Condolences to family and friends.