Hi Everyone!

The heading expresses our distress at a loss to the community of
Excel.

It is with the greatest of sadness that I must report the news that
Frank Kabel has died in a tragic accident whilst on holiday in his
home country of Germany.

I'm afraid that at this stage, whilst the news has been confirmed from
his employers, we know nothing more. It falls to me to try and do
justice to a good mate on behalf of Bob Phillips, Ron de Bruin and all
of Frank's other many "Excel friends".

Frank was not only a very major contributor to these newsgroups but he
was also a great innovative developer and friend to all. Despite
English being his second language his replies to public and private
correspondence were always well worth reading for content and charm.
It is difficult to believe that Frank only started posting to
newsgroups in late 2003 but his posts were immediately prolific and
helpful to all. At one stage Frank was such a prolific poster we even
thought that he was several people. It was difficult to comprehend how
he could compose so many excellent replies at such a high speed. Frank
was our newest MVP Excel and he achieved this recognition at the same
record speed that he was used to working at. It is distressing to
many outside Germany that we never got to meet him in person. Here
though is a photograph that we can remember him by.

http://www.jumper.ch/infos.htm

Many thousands will have benefited from his efforts to help and
educate; even more will benefit over the years from the time and
considerable energy that Frank devoted to developing and sharing his
knowledge. Bob Phillips, Ron de Bruin and I worked many hundreds of
hours with Frank on projects such as QDE (Quick Date Entry) and the
EasyFilter Addins. A pre-production Addin CFPlus being worked on with
Bob Phillips and giving the additional conditional formatting has only
happened because of Frank's energy and we know that he was very proud
of its concept and implementation. Frank also was driving,
contributing, and stimulating other projects and updates and we know
that Frank had so much more he wanted to give to the community of
Excel users. He was a great team player and we could guarantee high
speed, critical and friendly feedback. We will miss him not only for
his contributions but also for his humour and sincere friendship. He
enjoyed a Single Malt and a good cigar and lived, and gave of his
life, to the full.

We offer condolences to his family and friends at the loss of Frank at
such a young age. Frank came from Hamburg where his family still live
and had a long term girlfriend to whom we offer the sympathy that can
do little to make up for her loss.

We have all lost a good and sincere friend. Frank represented the very
highest of the traditions of these Excel Groups.

I have undertaken to ensure the collection and collation of responses
to this post both public and private and I will ensure a suitable
presentation to his family.


--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
on behalf of Bob Phillips and Ron de Bruin
Sydney, Australia