Hilliard Moffett "Mac" McLamore passed away peacefully in his sleep Saturday evening. His many contributions, his leadership, and his character will always be remembered at the QBasic Forum.
I emailed the family to see if they were planning a service. I thought we could send flowers as a community, if so. Instead, the family plans a private ceremony and cremation. I did the same private ceremony when my own Dad passed away; so I fully understand. In my father’s time of convalescences, his family all came to visit him, much as all of Mac’s QBasic family came to visit him in the form of emails over the past month. Mac enjoyed hearing from each of you and I want to thank his daughter, Christina, for her faithful printing and reading of each of those emails to Mac.
For the present time, Mac's family website will remain as part of his forum account; however, I have been asked to inform all of our members to please keep posts here.
I thought what we could do to remember Mac at the forum is to create and post a tribute page. I wrote about this to Christina last month and she was supportive of the idea. My impression, from our emails, suggested to me that it is important that such a page reflect the good times we shared with Mac; so, when the time times to discuss such a tribute, I would recommend that we submit remembrances of our favorite forum memories with Mac. My problem with that will be the same as yours, there are so many memories to choose from.
I think we should wait and discuss such a tribute page in the future. For now, I ask that each of us take a little quite time to remember Mac in our own way. To help with that, I'm including this article Christina sent me, which she is submitting for publication into the Washington Post:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hilliard Moffett McLamore, 72, died on June 14, 2008 at 6:30 p.m., at his home in Vienna, Virginia. Only five months ago, he was diagnosed with cancer (metastatic carcinoma of unknown primary). He was born on April 2, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas. He spent the majority of his school years in Texas, but also attended Kramer Junior High School in Anacostia for the spring and fall semesters of 1949.
“Mac” McLamore served in the Army from 1953 to 1956, and he was stationed for two years in Germany. He specialized in radar operation, radio operation (Morse code) and cryptography. After his honorable discharge, he attended the University of Texas, and earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He studied mathematics and electrical engineering, and graduated summa cum laude in 1959. He was also a Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Texas.
As one of the first computer programmers, Mac started working for IBM in 1959 in Kingston, NY and he was quickly promoted and transferred to the Washington D.C. area, where he met his future wife, Gudrun Larsen of Denmark. In 1967, Mac moved overseas to work for Investors Overseas Services (IOS), and later, World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1974, he moved back to the Washington DC area for good, and worked as a database administrator for Boeing Computer Services (BCS). Throughout his career, Mac kept time with the rapid-fire changes in computing, and upon retirement, he devoted himself to a Q Basic Forum. No matter how much he knew, he was always willing and able to learn more.
His humility and good humor will never be forgotten. He is survived by his wife, Gudrun McLamore; his son, Lars Hilliard McLamore, of Burke, Virginia; his daughter, Christina McLamore, of Miami, Florida; two grandchildren; and two half-sisters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- QBasic Rules