I learned about two suicides today.
First, I learned by email that an old friend and coworker of mine named Chris Joslyn killed himself on February 12. Last time I saw him was at my wedding about 4.5 years ago. We hadn’t really stayed in touch the past decade or so, but worked together at 4 different companies early in our careers (Precision Visuals, Visual Numerics, XVT, and Rogue Wave). Beth and I had attended Chris’ wedding about 10 years ago, though he got divorced not too long afterwards. There’s a memorial gathering for him in Boulder this Friday afternoon.
Second, I just read online that Brad Delp, the singer from the band Boston, killed himself on March 9. He was engaged to be married later this year. Though the band Boston hasn’t really done anything meaningful in nearly 20 years, Brad’s singing was probably the most recognizable element of the music to most listeners. I loved that band’s music when I was a teenager and just got re-introduced to it a few months ago when remastered CDs of the first two albums were released.