Nate Oliver

[Oaktree]

Such tragic news. He was instrumental in making this board what it is today. So many of us learned directly and indirectly from him. He was brilliant and generous with his time in a way not many are. The whole Excel community mourns the loss of a great one.

 

[arkusM]

Wow... tragic news.

Nate's wisdom, knowledge and patience got me though more than a few coding binds..........

Mark R

 

[MrKowz]

Rest in peace, friend. I learned a great deal from Nate, and will miss his presence on the forums.

 

[Greg Truby]

Nate was a good man and a good friend. There are literally thousands of people that knew Nate only through his exceptional body of contributions here at MrExcel and at other forums like UtterAccess and XtremeVBTalk.
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There are a lucky few of us that - thanks to the Microsoft MVP program - got to actually meet Nate personally. For the many who only ever knew Nate virtually, he was quite the Renaissance geek. Yes, due his pedigree in Finance and Economics he first became exceptional at Excel. Then, after becoming dominant in Excel he then turned his attention to Access and again earned a reputation as an expert. But beyond his prodigious knowledge of Excel and Access, Nate had a passion for fast cars, football and pool.

Unlike Smitty, I was never daft enough to challenge Nate to a game of pool or billiards. And trust Nate to find a way to unite two of his passions. He actually knew a VP of the Women’s Professional Billiards Association and offered to assist them in improving their processes for calculating and posting their members’ tournament statistics. If you knew Nate you would hardly find this surprising.
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I would chuckle when Nate would make some type of a side comment about getting into some type of a debate in a cars forum about some issue or other. In the early days of his role as moderator at MrExcel I tried to explain to him that some people are simply rude and thick and no amount of reasoning and logic would ever lead them towards civility or enlightenment. I’m not sure if Nate ever fully accepted my perspective. I think some part of him stubbornly insisted anyone could be persuaded by his logic if he just hung in there long enough.
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His love of football led to he and I commiserating about the performance of our favorite teams. Nate was an ardent Vikings fan and was always very nice about thanking me for my idiot Chiefs trading them Jared Allen (though in fairness, the Chiefs “D” is the only part of the team that’s shown up for the last six games).
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At the last MVP summit Nate looked a bit ragged and I was concerned for his health and told him as much. I told him if there was anything I or any of his other MVP friends could do, to let any of us know. Likewise he could tell me to mind my owned damñed business and I’d respect that too. Nate thanked me for my concern and explained that at the age of 27 he had been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse which had a number of rather unpleasant symptoms all of which were exacerbated by air travel. My observation was that Nate took his condition in stride. He simply dealt with the symptoms such as massive jolts of adrenaline, fatigue, anxiety-like attacks or IBS as they came up. Perhaps he also took it as license to drink as much as he liked and to smoke unrepentantly. I don’t think he ever expected to live to old age. If he did, great, but if he didn’t – well those were just the cards he was dealt -- he wasn't going to wallow in self-pity. Nate didn’t let the possibility of a short life make him a hedonist. Instead, he channeled his formidable intellect towards helping thousands of people online solve their problems. He leaves a legacy befitting a man of his good character.

I think all of us who were afforded the privilege of meeting him in person would like those of you who only ever met him in cyberspace to know that while the cyber-Nate was great; the real Nate was even better.

 

[strive4peace]

It is hard to see through the tears. Greg, what a beautiful piece about Nate, thank you. Thank you for posting this Smitty.

Nate touched us all.

NateO, Bill Jelen, Smitty, Matt Vidas, Zack

Nate and Greg

We miss him at UtterAccess too. Here is a thread:

Farewell To Our Beloved Nate
http://www.utteraccess.com/forum/Farewell-Beloved-Nate-t1978329.html

 

[strive4peace]

Nate, Zack, Smitty, Bill

Martin Kral (KingMartin), Pattrick Matthews, NateO

Rob Bovey, Nate, Martin, DougY and Leigh Purvis (UA)

Nate

 

[Joe4]

Greg,

That was a very moving piece you wrote about Nate. Thanks for sharing.

One thing that I noticed when you look at all these pictures of Nate here and on other forums - he's was always smiling.

It is amazing to see how many lives he touched and how many people he helped. He was truly a wonderful and unique person who will be missed greatly.

 

[Fazza]

sad news: a great contributor: an active life well lived

 

[XL-Dennis]

Rest in Peace NateO
My condolences to his family and friends.

 

[Brian from Maui]

I don't frequent MrExcel as often as I once did, and am saddened to hear of NateO's passing.

Way back in the early years, NateO was one of many who helped me grasp Excel.

For some reason, I always thought he was Canadien, although living in MSP.

I will always picture him smiling with a mug of beer in one hand and a smoke in the other!

My condolences to his family.