Memories of Malcolm
A year ago today [Malcolm Tredinnick](https://about.me/malcolmt), core
contributor to Django suddenly passed away. He was a mentor, and more
importantly, a good friend.
Here are some of my memories of Malcolm.
DjangoCon US: September 2010
============================
This is where Audrey and I first met Malcolm. We ended up spending a
good amount of the conference with him just hanging out and having a
good time. I remember being honored that such a luminary wanted to spend
time with us, yet was more delighted in discovering a good friend.
During the conference, he peered into the nascent code base of
[djangopackages.com](https://www.djangopackages.com) and asked some
pointed questions. We justified a few design decisions, and he agreed,
and we saw him using similar techniques later. He gave us some great
pointers on things we could do, and I believe we implemented all of
them.
Summer to Autumn of 2010
========================
Malcolm and I worked together on a project in 2010. During this time we
had a number of email and chat discussions. Going over them now I'm
impressed by his friendship and generosity of knowledge. I know he was
terribly busy but yet he always had time for me in 2010.
After about 15 emails where I addressed him as 'Malcom', Malcolm
finally got me to consistently spell his name correctly with a single
sentence:
> You might be amazed at how cranky it makes me when people try to spell
> Malcolm with only one "l".
>
> :-)
This was Malcolm: Acerbic yet tempered with a smile.
PyCon Australia: August 2011
============================
We had just arrived in Sydney. Our first overseas trip together! Audrey
was giving the opening keynote at PyCon Australia. She wanted to
practice her speech but I was restless. So she suggested that I go out
for dinner, specifically sushi train with Malcolm Tredinnick and Russell
Keith-Magee. I don't remember anything about the food, but I do
remember having a great time with good friends.
After the conference one evening Audrey and I spent a few hours with
just Malcolm walking around Sydney. None of us wanted it to end. The
time spent together outside of the insane pace of a conference was a
poignant reminder that even with email, chat, and IRC, there was still
thousands of miles between us.
PyCon Philippines: June 2012
============================
On his own dollar, Malcolm had dropped everything to attend. He spoke,
he taught, and he made many friends. I have to admit being jealous of
the students in the Django tutorial he taught because they got to spend
time with him. ;)
It was our last time with Malcolm, and it was so brief, so limited. I
was okay with that because I thought I would get a chance to see him
again.
Two Scoops of Django: October 2012-January 2013
===============================================
If you read the
[memorial](https://feldroy.com/pages/malcolm-tredinnick-memorial)
we wrote for Malcolm, you can see that his presence is an integral part
of Two Scoops of Django. He coached us, guided us, forced us to dig
deeper and deeper into source code. Of special note is the database
chapter (excluding the 1.6 edition transactions), which he really
focused on.
Today: March 17th, 2014
=======================
What Matt Croydon says:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Celebrate the life of [@malcolmt](https://twitter.com/malcolmt) today: be nice to someone, help someone learn something, and push some code. Tomorrow: repeat.</p>— Matt Croydon (@mc) [March 19, 2013](https://twitter.com/mc/statuses/314013575406571520)</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tags: python django djangocon pycon book australia twoscoops
← Back to all articles