Request Description:
JAN 27, 2009 12:00 a.m.
Dear Friends and Colleagues
It is with tremendous sadness, shock, dismay, and disbelief that I inform you of the impending passing of Jon Alsop. This past Sunday evening Jon suffered a heart attack, which caused him to collapse and hit his head very hard on the ground. For a short period of time, Jon ‘s heart stopped completely, depriving his brain of oxygen and ultimately the injury proved too much for even a man of Jon’s strength and perserverence to overcome. He lies in a peaceful coma-like state right now, with unfortunately no brain activity, while pursuant to his wishes his body is prepared for organ donation. Ultimately, funeral services will be arranged and held in Baltimore, Maryland. There is NO scheduled time for this yet and I will let you know as soon as I know. At this late hour it is most likely too late to visit him, as such if you are reading this in the morning you can check with me first to see if there is still an opportunity.
Additionally, complete and accurate updates on everything can be found at http://www.microgiving.com/profile/jonalsop
I have stared at my computer screen now for the past 30 minutes trying to decide what to write next, finding myself at a loss, not for words, but for where to start.. To everyone who had the fortunate opporutnity to know and love Jon Alsop, I know I share with you the feelings of complete devastation. Jon had the ability to earn the trust, respect, love, and admiration for everyone whose paths he crossed. His sense of humor, his love of life, his compassion for others, his intellect, his passion, his genorosity and so much more was a source of inspiration and admiration for me and countless others.
Jon touched all of us in our lives in so many ways. I have heard from literally hundreds of people who knew Jon over the last 48 hours and every message all had the same undertone, of worry, of concern, of shock, of how much Jon meant to you, and perhaps most important how much you love him. I promise to write more about Jon as well as share the comments from you with everyone soon, but for now I will leave it at that.
To my colleagues, who have just begun mourning the passing of our other partner, Jason Strauss just one short week ago, I know that this is an incredibly stressful time for us all. As such we will be holding a special company meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00 am to discuss these events, additionally we are working on providing grief counseling to those that would like it. Amazingly, it was just 7 days ago when Mr Alsop had informed his staff of Mr Strauss’s passing and one of his key comments was that nothing was more important to Jason than to see our company succedd and that would be the best honor we could provide Jason. Just 7 days later we are now faced with another incredible challenge, and I firmly believe we will perservere not just because of our talent but now and even more importantly in honor of our dearly loved and missed partners, Jason and Jon..
To Jon’s friends, I know many of you have felt hopeless since hearing of Jon’s circumstances. Please know that everything that possibly could have been done to save Jon was done. From the heroic efforts of Mark Daniel and Jason Boshoff who found Jon, to the paramedics, doctors, and other medical staff who tried everything possible for Jon. His family is greatly appreciative of all of your sympathy and kind words.
For those who wont be able to attend his funeral in person, we plan to have a secondary tele-conference service and I will provide the conference number information and time/date of the service when it has been established.
For those that wish to send something to the family, I will find out the appropriate address to remit things too and post that on his MicroGiving profile tomorrow
The main place for information will be at http://www.microgiving.com/profile/jonalsop you can also leave comments there for Jon and his family as well as make a donation if you like.
I think that about sums up the current state of affairs, my most sincere apologies to be the bearer of such disheartening news, twice in one week.
Jon Alsop may you rest in peace and thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the tremendous positive influence and great memories you had/created on mine and so many countless other people’s lives…
You shall always be remembered as the knight in shining armor that you are.
Love Always,
John B Ferber
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