Remembering Bob Lee

I met Bob when he met his wife Krista. He was always smiling! Bob took a genuine interest in other people and their thoughts and ideas. He did not see color, status, age, gender, religion, or any limitations to block him from learning. He was literally “ the best”. I remember going on a “camping” trip with Bob and a group of friends. We went on canoes and had so much fun goofing off all day. The next morning Bob woke me up early to take his Land Rover out . We tore up some trails. I managed to flip it on its side and we laughed. He had this huge smile on his face as we switched seats for him to get out of the ditch we were in. Then we had a guy come running at us with a shot gun! It was his cousin. We were on his land and Bob had not informed him. That was the first time Bob was my hero… I remember not wanting to see his nice SUV get scratched. He said “ Heather look at the brush guards on this thing, this is what it’s made for!” Eventually he got me to loosen up and take the wheel. He knew how to live. Bob wanted to see other people happy and to shine. I could write a book on the other time he saved my life and was my hero. He has left a legacy and Bob will manage to improve our world and touch so many lives still. The world needs Bob Lee. He is “The Best” Heather from Denver

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I first met Bob on TheServerSide.com, which I ran for a few years.

We would debate all things Java, at a time where that was the place to pioneer in a lot of ways. For real.

When I met him in person I was confused. He looked too cool for school. He carried himself in a certain way. He wouldn’t want to talk to me…

But no. He was an ultimate geek too. I saw him in many situations where he fit in there too. It always felt different.

And then there was the Vegas trip. We put on TheServerSide Symposium, and in one of the most surreal days ever, I ended up on the bridge of the Enterprise, celebrating Bob getting married.

Never a dull moment with Bob. An intense creative mind, and one that loooooved to have some fun.

I just went through some old emails, many of which had a common pattern in the thread of:

“AWESOME!!!”

What a guy.

I hope that one day Bob's son and daughter will see this thread, and will enjoy through tears these beautiful memories of their father.

If that ever happens, D&S, I hoped I could say something to you. If you never see it, well, I tried.

It's like this. You're going to be bombarded your entire lives by people going on and on about what an incredible person your dad was. You will never get away from it. I know, because my mom was also one of those absolutely rare one-in-a-billion souls. And for 40 years I've been hearing the legend of Sharon.

But for some reason, no one ever once said to me: "you know what Kev? Please tell us what she was like. Who she was to us, that's just who she was to us. You knew sides of her that we never could, and who she was to you is so very very important too."

Never. Once.

I'm not asking you to answer that to me or anything. But I just wanted to say. Yes, please enjoy reading and hearing our memories of him. I think they will bring a smile to your face from time to time. But there is a bigger part of him that belongs to you and you alone. And that matters so, so much. Hold it close and never stop talking about him. Even if just to each other. Even if just to yourselves.

I'm so very sorry he was taken from you.

(Hey, I got through that without even an I-remember-you-when-you-were-this-big!) (butIdo)

As the creator of Spring, it might surprise folk to know that Bob and I were good friends, and that I had immense respect for Bob's brilliant mind and instinct for API design.

We first met 20 years ago, in 2003. It was the same evening I met Cameron Purdy and Juergen Hoeller, at the first ServerSide Symposium, in Boston. Bob must have been 23. He looked like a kid, although he’d already achieved a lot. Actually, he always looked young. If I remember correctly he had driven to Boston from STL.

We hung out at that conference with a bunch of folk who did a lot of important stuff over the next few years. It was an amazing time in the Java community. Bob was so enthusiastic and positive and full of ideas.

Bob and I first collaborated on something called the AOP Alliance, with Jon Tirsen, back in 2003. Interceptor based AOP-lite for Java. We wanted Spring and Jon and Bob’s projects to be interoperable. Tiny little API but better for Bob’s input. And useful.

Later on, we collaborated on standardising injection, including Bob’s great ideas from Guice. Since 2007, Spring has been better because of Bob. Even when you had a different opinion, it was always enjoyable and rewarding to discuss tech with Bob.

But more important, I have so many good memories of Bob as a person. We spent a lot of time together when I first moved to the Bay Area in the late 2000s and it was a ton of fun. Bob knew I’d just moved from London and was very welcoming. Lunches at Google, concerts at Mountain View Amphitheater, bar crawls in SF (Bob always knew another place and had infinite energy), hanging out at his house in Mountain View, where I saw him be a great dad.

Bob was a key presence at the infamous destruction party in 2011 after I’d bought my SF apartment and planned to gut it, and people were kicking holes in walls, writing on mirrors in lipstick and rolling in the blinds they’d pulled down. Memories are hazy but I seem to remember Bob practicing karate kicks on a door someone had taken off, and his brother trying to open a wine bottle with a shoe. So sad to think that Andy Gross from Basho was there also. Another brilliant, interesting one who’s also sadly gone.

It’s a measure of the positive impact that Bob had that so many people from way back have reconnected over this tragedy. I guess we all need to talk about our shock, and remind each other of how great those times with Bob were.

RIP Bob. You were a great guy, and a brilliant mind. I feel for your family and many friends and am sad we’ll never get to hang out again.