We at Oracle have been shocked by the news of Leonard's passing.
Emails have been flying around amongst all of those who knew him.

Leonard worked in my department.  His work on instruction tracing is
still a cornerstone of our performance analysis tool.  Leonard is
probably the only person who could have done this work, and it's value
has been huge.

Leonard was both respected technically and personally at Oracle.
Although I did not get to know him well, I enjoyed chatting with him,
and appreciated his ability to "kick back" and get away from it all
(mentally), while still contributing so much.  At the time, I remember
him talking about how much he enjoyed his hot tub.  I could always
visualize him sittin' in that tub and grinnin' contentedly, cheshire cat
style.

When VA Linux took off, we all thought it was a gas that someone who
really didn't give a hoot about money was worth $n zillion dollars on
paper.  I hope he had a chance to enjoy his success.  From what I've
been reading, it appears that he did, and that he died doing something
he loved in a beautiful place.

Why do the nice guys die young ?

Roger Choplin
Vice President, Data and Systems Technology
Oracle Corporation