[Tig] Passage of John Pytlak last night

[Ted Langdell]

Sorry to start your day with some sad news.

Eastman Kodak's John Pytlak passed last night (Friday, Aug. 17) in  
Rochester, NY from the effects of a nearly year-long battle with cancer.

He was a frequent contributor to many film and image related  
discussion boards and e-mail lists.

Like a lot of other folks, I've only met John through his replies,  
and came to appreciate his gentle nature and wealth of knowledge. I'd  
hoped that he might have been well enough to attend the September  
AMIA Conference in Rochester, where he lived and worked for Kodak.   
I'd hoped to meet him and thank him for his replies to my questions  
over the last two or three years.

His initial health problem was noted back in September of last year  
on the AMIA Association of Moving Image Archivists list,  this list  
and several others like the The Cinematography Mailing List,  
Cinematography.com, and
filmshooting.com.

Brad Miller and John Hawkinson at Film-Tech.com organized a surprise  
e-mail communication campaign just before Memorial Day in order to  
collect and package a collage of messages they sent to John in  
Rochester.

They'd sent e-mails to all but John advising of the plan, which was  
picked up in a similar fashion by the Telecine Internet Group  
directing readers to the Film-tech.com project.

Click here to see the forum http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f8/t005122.html
and here to see the poster: http://www.film-tech.com/pytlak.pdf

(You may have to register first)

He was intermittently posting to different groups as his health  
allowed, often to the Film-tech.com "Yak" forum.

http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f8/t004814.html

(You may have to register first and scroll through the more than 25  
pages of support to date)

His last post there was on Aug. 15.  His daughter Anne announced  
John's passage at 11:40 p.m. late yesterday (Friday) in the same  
forum this morning (8/18) posted at 05:31 AM Central Daylight Time.

He was also posting regularly to http://www.cinematography.com/ 
forum2004/index.php?showtopic=17256&st=260, where Anne also reported  
his passage.

Professionally, he was John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist,  
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging Research Labs,  
Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY.

Folks with Particle Transfer Rollers on their telecines, film  
scanners and other film handling machines see John at work every day,  
as he was intimately involved in their development at Eastman Kodak.   
Perhaps they should be renamed "Pytlak Transfer Rollers" or "Pytlak  
Particle Transfer Rollers."

He received an Oscar in 2001 for his work on the Laboratory Aim  
Density System.

Outside of work, he was John Pytlak, Husband, Father, Friend.  He  
passed surrounded by his family.

No obituary has been posted yet to http://www.legacy.com/ 
DemocratAndChronicle/Obituaries.asp, the Rochester newspaper's  
website.  Check back.

John's legacy of helpful contributions lives on in his frank and  
courage-building postings about his health, and in the pages of posts  
you'll find in this Google search.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=John 
+Pytlak&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Thanks, John.

Ted Langdell
Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
Marysville, CA
Main:   (530) 741-1212