Emru Townsend

Some people are just born to make a difference. I never met Emru Townsend, who spent his entire life in Montreal, but am on an e-mail list on which he was one of the most popular members. Apparently that was par for the course: he was a member of many communities, virtual and meat-world, and made friends in all of them. (His enthusiasms were often those of the eighties-era bright teenager that he once was: gaming, computers, anime, etc.) He was a published writer, which expanded the reach of his many enthusiasms. When someone is intelligent, energetic, knowledgeable, and considerate, that is a powerful combination.

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Below is a list of several online tributes to Emru, compiled by his sister. Please read them.

The Chronicle.
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-273913-Remembering-Emru.html

The Mirror:
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/112008/news2.html

Drawn!
http://drawn.ca/2008/11/12/in-memory-of-emru-townsend/

Cartoon Brew
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/emru-townsend-rip (with links to others)

PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/article/153725/
in_memoriam_pc_world_contributor_emru_townsend.html#

Computerworld
http://blogs.computerworld.com/emru_townsend_in_memorium

Eyestrain Productions
http://www.shanesimmons.com/es/archives/archive_2008-m11.php

There are some more blogs and articles and there are quite a few if
you go to Google News and do a quick search.

Tamu

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Emru Townsend was diagnosed with leukemia last year, and was advised to seek a bone marrow transplant as quickly as possible. His friends said that it was characteristic of Emru that, on finding out that his African-Caribbean ancestry meant that it would be much harder to find a donor, due to the under-representation of that group in the bone marrow donor registry, he began to campaign for greater awareness of the registry program. He knew that it probably would not make a substantial difference in his own case, but that it would improve the lives of others in the future.

Emru Townsend died earlier this month. He had eventually found a bone marrow donor, but the disease had progressed too far. He leaves behind his son, his wife, his sister, other family members, a seemingly endless group of friends, and, thanks to his presence in it, a slightly better world.