It was back in 2008 when I first met Dave Coleman along with Mike Herrity when they made a 3 hour drive from their school to visit mine in Birmingham. It was a strange occasion where we learnt that our lives were crossed with each other in more ways than one even though we were only there to demonstrate what we had both done with our SharePoint environments.
During our chat at the school, it came to light that Twynham School where Dave was Network Manager was my Uncles previous schools where he was Head Teacher and back in the 1990s where my Uncle was on the interview panel to appoint Dave as Network Manager, a position he kept for over 15 years. Dave told me plenty of stories about my Uncles time at the school which only few know about today.
Getting to know Dave over the years was always a laugh along with some other great friends at different Microsoft Education and Conferences we were both at. Dave always had time for me and we laughed a lot. During the 2009 SharePoint Conference we walked the Las Vegas strip coming up with different SharePoint alternatives after the launch of SharePint that year at the conference. The SharePoint Conference will never be the say again without our CherPoint photo in Caesars PalacePaliace, first taken in 2009 and then again in 2012.
In 2009 Dave learnt that he was the same age as my Dad and so he became my SharePoint Dad, a joke that will last forever.
Also in 2009 Dave spoke at the first Learning Gateway Conference at the Belfry in Birmingham, this is where I first started to see Dave heart for the community. He loved sharing his knowledge of SharePoint and working to build a bigger profile for his blogging site SharePointEduTech. His goal to give other people the opportunity to share their knowledge without having to have a cost of running a website. Through the years as this grow, so did Dave’s passion for share setting up webinar and travelling internationally to speak but also to see the world with his wife Sue. It was great to have them both attend our wedding in May 2011 and be part of our special day.
Dave and I had one more thing in common. We both grew up in the Salvation Army church and when I first learnt this I was delight that during his childhood he got to know God. We never went into our faith in great detail but I know I’ll be seeing him soon.
Thanks for being such a great friend Dave and I’ll see you soon.