The obits I've read,
are one sided.
He or she was always
dedicated to their family...survived by....in lieu of flowers....
And that was it.
I'd like tell you about a friend,
and say, among other things,
what else Jack's obituary should have said.
We got along, off and on, for many years.
His most outstanding characteristic was,
he was a sponge for facts and ideas--
science, politics, cultural trends
That was his thing.
Many a lunch hour we and others ate,
solving world problems.
On a good day, we could smother conservatives with facts,
and outshout them too.
Jack leaned liberal, but carefully reasoned his positions,
which meant that I mostly agreed with him.
He was thin-skinned and a poor turn of words,
he would silently seethe.
That was the frenemy part.
Afterwards we avoided each other,
until after some time,
once or twice as long as a year or so,
we spoke again,
almost like nothing happened.
Jack read a lot, mostly nonfiction
Lots of science, with some Asimov in his past
He was dedicated to his profession and stayed current.
Customers trusted him and he served them well.
He only worked at one place,
mostly because he liked the job
and some of the people.
But if a project didn't appeal to him,
he could also be Mr Passive-Aggressive,
He followed the arts and drew,
building a rig for two point perspective,
his doodles were marvelous.
Jack's character was as complex as his interests.
He described his diversity with "I'm just a dabbler."
Humble, yet proud. sincere but a little perverse.
But not really a dabbler-- he dug deep, a lot.
His passing was sudden and his obituary had gaps.