Forty-three days after being diagnosed with liver cancer, Ryan Marc Vander Wall passed away peacefully, with his parents, his partner, Kendra, and a few friends at his bedside.
He died Dec. 23, 2006, one day after his 29th birthday.
The son of Shirley and Ken Vander Wall of Ft. Collins, Colo., Vander Wall was born with a heart defect. He underwent Fontan surgery “” new and experimental at the time “” at 3 years of age. He proved the doctors wrong, exceeding his life expectancy by 14 years.
After graduating from Heritage Christian High School in Fort Collins, Vander Wall traveled cross-country in his Mazda pickup truck, searching for his own path. He visited Florida by way of an Amiga convention about the same-named computer operating system.
And in 1999 he eventually came to a halt in Ocean Beach, his ideal community.
Vander Wall worked for Nethere Inc., and owned and operated OB Computer Repair.
After relocating with Kendra to Seattle, in 2005, he landed his dream job “” his pinnacle, his peak “” at Google.
Vander Wall, an 8-year-old Defcon alumnus, was a nerd “” and proud of it. He was a strong believer in the Open Source Community and grassroots organizations.
He had an affinity for the operating systems Amiga and Gentoo as well as for his faithful truck. He loved GI Joe’s, Battlestar Galactica and punk rock. He was rarely seen without his spiked leather jacket and combat boots.
Vander Wall was a proud uncle, and his strong faith in God made him an idealist.
Friends from the greater L.A. area will construct a ship 3 to 4 feet long to be burned in a “viking funeral” in Vander Wall’s honor Friday, Jan. 19, at 4 p.m., at Tower 3 in Ocean Beach. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
Vander Wall is survived by family members in Fort Collins, as well as his nieces and nephews Shealyn, Iris and Evan.
To make a donation in Vander Wall’s memory, please contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation at www.eff.org.