I received some sad news this morning that Frank Kabel died in an accident. Frank was an author on this blog and a fellow Excel MVP.
I never met Frank personally, but I’ve corresponded with him via email over the last few months. In the short time I knew him, I considered him a friend. I wish his family and friends well during this difficult time.
This photo of Frank is from Monika Weber’s website.
This is incredibly sad news.
For those not familiar with Frank’s work, have a look at Tushar’s newsgroup statistics page http://www.tushar-mehta.com/excel/ngstats/frequency.html
-yes, it says 10600 newsgroup postings in half a year, all written by Frank.
Frank, I loved your thorough, methodical, sometimes schoolteacher-like approach; for me you were a great Excel teacher indeed. We didn’t know each other personally, but I know I’ll miss you very much. Nobody in the Excel community could replace you. Even if all of us do their utmost best, there will always be an empty space. Maybe the only thing we can do is to accept this emptiness as an unlimited source of inspiration of what could have been.
Extremely sad news, I’m sure Frank will be deeply missed by many. My sincerest condolences to his friends and family also.
This is terrible news.
This is VERY SAD NEWS. I have watched Frank from afar and in your blog, and liked his methodical approach.
My heart felt condolences go out to his loved ones.
Shocking news.
Commiserations to his family and friends
My condolences to Frank’s family and friends. I appreciate his generosity and all the knowledge he shared with us.
lieber frank………..
ich kann es nicht glauben……….
…wolfgang
I knew about this sad news by Monika’s email in this morning. I’m very sorry for his friend and his family.
i like to thank norman harker for his gentle and well composed words in the excel newsgroup…
norman, nobody could have expressed our feelings better in our mothertongue than you did in yours…
thank you very much indeed…
wolfgang
I’m sure that I speak for Bob Phillips and Ron de Bruin when I say that three of Frank’s close friends and collaborators were devastated by this. We will struggle to complete projects that were ongoing.
I’ve received the following from Excel MVP, Harald Staff, Norway that is worthy of sharing:
QUOTE:
It is not obvious, even to a skilled computer user, what newsgroup participants do. A newsgroup is a global, public, electronic message board where everyone can post just anything they want. When it comes to computer topics, newsgroups are mostly used to ask for solutions to some problem, and a helpful person will hopefully reply with a working solution.
This is what we do in the Excel MVP community. We are Excel experts that assist peoplewith solutions to Excel tasks, so they can learn from it, or just use it to get a job done or a problem solved. We do not get paid for this, it is just a nice thing to do, and we learn a lot ourselves while doing it.
Frank started posting Excel solutions in newsgroups just a few years ago, and never did we see a more productive, dedicated person. My estimate is that Frank assisted about 50 new people, complete strangers from all over the world, for free, every single day weekends included. Some of the solutions are usually simple, common knowledge, but in Franks case many solutions was tailored for the person in need, industry strength professional work. Always patiently explaining, always friendly and
understanding.
This is the work of a very special person, and I guess he would be no more than a few kilometres away from a grateful friend just anywhere on the globe. I am very sorry that Frank is no more with us.
UNQUOTE
You’ll be missed Frank! But you’ll never be forgotten and will live on in the many thousands of people you have helped.
Thanks Dick.
Norman Harker
I use Exceltip quite frequently when I have a question. Frank always had an answer for me…
That is truly awful and bought a tear to my eyes when I read that. I have corrresponded with Frank on a couple of occassions and he seemed like a really nice guy.
Sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Dave
Frank was a very special person who I never had the privilege of meeting personally.
We exchanged several e-mails and he will always be remembered. There are not enough genuine, good willing people around, so today is a very sad day indeed.
As a frequent visitor to the Excel forum. I witnessed and copied Frank’s incredibly generous answers to questions asked by those of us new to the VBA experience. His answers, oftentimes lengthy and containing valuable well written code, were always spot on and contained an aire of the kindly professor. His generous nature on the forum no doubt, was part and parcel of his personal life and likely enriched the lives of those fortunate enough to know him personally. I did not. But I share in perhaps smaller measure the grief at the passing of Frank Kabel. My prayers are with his family and friends.