RIP Big Ivan

[Scud]

Mike Amos (Warhorse) informed me that our friend and fellow war gamer, John Pirman (Big Ivan) passed away this morning from liver and kidney problems.

I've known John since our early days at the old WarfareHQ/Gamesquad club, having first played him in a tournament there where he cleaned my clock. We played often after that and had many enjoyable conversations over the years by email, text messaging, phone calls and video chats. He was part of the CS beta brigade, playtesting ME and the new Vietnam versions of the game, often against me...where he cleaned my clock. He also volunteered to help out as a forum moderator here at the Blitz and cosponsored some of our tournaments, including the World in Flames Redux tourney where he commanded the Axis team.

John was a metallurgical engineer in real life, employed in the steel industry where he specialized in quality control. He was from Ohio where he went to college, worked in the Syracuse area for years before he and his wife, Gwen, returned to Ohio to finish up his work years prior to retirement.

I will miss him a lot and for the rest of my life.

Rest in peace, Johnny.

[Jason Petho]

John will be missed terribly. 

A good, kind man with a passion for the Campaign Series. 

My deepest condolences to his family. 

Rest well and play hard, John!

[Herr Straße Laufer]

Called to rest.
John was a superior man. A good friend with a heart of gold.
His love of life and dedication to CS, and The Blitz, will always be remembered.

As Dave has said, I enjoyed our email exchanges. There you found a super guy. He will be sorely missed.

Ed

[Crossroads]

Oh man, this hit hard. I just talked with him the other week. Rest in peace, John.

[5 Leichte Div]

Gentlemen All :

I'm just a satellite player here and there.
I did not know "Big Ivan".
But I've been aware of his awesome prowess.

Oh, man - this decade has been calling them in, huh?

His many cohorts will miss him greatly.
Providence.
He's on his way to wargamer Valhalla.
RIP , Sir !

TOM S

[zap]

Can we as a club send his wife an e-mail condolence. Or have information to sign his funeral internet book of condolences that his family will provide for friends to sign?

Rest in peace John.

[Nort]

He will be missed. I just finished playing him in his last CS game. He was always a gentleman and never let on that he was experiencing any discomfort. Always a friend to the Blitz and each one of us.

[dawags]

Dave,

Really sorry to hear this.
A fair number of us on these Boards are getting a little 'long in the tooth'...

He was an "electronic" friend for me, but like many here, we develop a connection over a shared passion for both history and gaming, where we can feed both of those passions with like individuals through The Blitz.
We get to know each other through this medium, so the loss of any of us is the loss of a friend.

John's leaving will be felt by all of us.

Dale
dawags

[Dan Caviness]

Hello David:

You can't replace someone like John, nor would I want to. He's irreplaceable.
He not only helped save me countless times with some editor screw up to make my scenarios playable, he always emanated selfless dedication to the really best part of this game, which is the community.

Building a community amongst basement dwelling grognards like myself isn't a simple task.
It is only through the grace of really social humans like John, who help us grunt and gesticulate our way through life, that we stumble our way to the finish line.

John and I enjoyed talking shop, as we both worked in the same industry.
You don't run into metallurgical engineers specializing in non-ferrous thin walled alloys very often.
Grain boundary separation, intergranular stress cracking corrosion, not to mention the ultrasonic and induced eddy current non-destructive examinations we both oversaw as resident Level III's of these non destructive examination disciplines were belabored between us. A very intelligent man.

Hoist a glass for Big Ivan.

My highest regards,

Dan

[Panzerjäger]

My condolences to the family and the entire community. Rest in peace.

regards from germany
Peter