As many of you know, Michael “Mike” J. Karels tragically passed away on his way home from BSDCan 2024.
Mike made profound contributions to BSD, beginning with his help on CSRG’s 4.4BSD-Lite release, and continuing in countless ways up until the day we lost him. With the blessing of his family, we invite you to honor his legacy with a contribution to the BSDCan Travel Grant Fund. We have received just over $1,250 CAD in contributions to the fund to date and aim to grow it to provide a single grant for long-distance travel each year, and a few smaller grants for individuals for whom a little help will make the difference between attending and not attending.
David Maxwell took this photo of Mike and me at the BSDCan 2015 social event and while it looks like we’re old friends who just discussed an important issue or subsystem, the truth is I only knew his work at the time. We had our first and only long talk at Father and Sons less than 48 hours before he passed away. He told me about the companies he had worked at and was every bit as delightful as his reputation suggested. I cherish that long-overdue moment we had together and will kick things off with my own $100 USD contribution to the Travel Grant Fund.
I invite you to do the same, especially if events beyond your control are
understandably preventing you from attending BSDCan in 2025.
Thank you Mike for the joy and code you brought us all and thank you all for helping honor him.
Michael W. Lucas auctioned off Mike’s own early-backers edition of “Run Your Own Mail Server”, “Ruin Your Mail by Running it Yourself”, and related Challenge Coin to support the Travel Grant Fund, with permission of the Karels family, brining in 175 €.
The finances of the Mike Karels Travel Grant Fund are managed by BSDCan Conferences Inc., a Canadian non-for-profit. You can donate via paypal@bsdcan.org indicating the “Mike Karels Travel Grant Fund”, or reach out to us at info@bsdcan.org for wire transfer information.
BSDCan 2025 Travel Grant applications are open until May 17th with responses May 20th.
Sincerely,
Michael Dexter
BSDCan Fundraising Lead