Im memoriam: Rudy Velthuis
Posted by jpluimers on 2020/01/05
Given that I’m fighting rectal cancer and am extremely low on energy, I am keeping this much shorter than I want to.
Recently, I learned that Rudy Velthuis passed away on 2019-05-13. Born on 1960-10-30, he passed away at only age 58.
After asking permission from his family, I wrote a small im memoriam.
We frequently encountered each other on-line in the Delphi community, especially in the early days when I was way more active on forums, newsgroups and chat channels. He was famous there, with good reason.
Though colloquially known as [WayBack] “dentist with a strong interest in programming”, he was a great Delphi programmer and very well known for thoroughly documenting the many gaps that Embarcadero left in their documentation.
In 2009, Edwin van der Kraan and I had an opportunity to have dinner with Rudy. We met at his house, where we learned he not only ran a fully fledged dentistry practice, but also was married someone who origilally was from the Philippines. A truly happy couple they were.
In retrospect, I wish we had had met in real life more often, but I’m learning the hard way that life is finite giving you only so much time to do things.
I will remember Rudy because of his knowledge, wit and odd – but great – combination of work and interests.
In the mean time, I have asked a few archival organisations (including the WayBack machine) to archive his sites:
Some of his profiles that I archived on 20190103:
- [WayBack] Rudy’s Delphi Corner – About Rudy
- [WayBack] rvelthuis (Rudy Velthuis) · GitHub
- [WayBack] Rudy Velthuis – Delphi-PRAXiS [en]
- [WayBack] User Rudy Velthuis – Stack Overflow
I love the “Kraftwerk – Autobahn” picture on his Stack Overflow profile page, so I included that song below the fold.
Related:
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Edwin Yip said
R.I.P Rudy. Although I haven’t had a chance to communicate with Rudy in any manner, I definitely know and remember his name for this passions in Delphi and contributions to the Delphi community. Best wishes to his family.
And Jeroen, I’m sorry and sad to learn that you’re fighting rectal cancer. Take care and best wishes to you, I hope you’ll well soon.
dennis said
There was always time for a nice chat with Rudy. He will be missed.
Lars Fosdal said
Rudy will be missed. I am pretty sure that most of us have benefitted from his experience!
Friedrich Westermann said
RIP Rudy,
i had some interesting discussions with him. I will miss it.
Sad Day for the Delphi Community for sure