On Sensei's Library someone posted that Steve Fawthrop aka DrStraw has died from an accident on 10/5/2022. If it's true, our community has lost another valuable member. He had retired from it some time ago but before has been part of many online Go activities, as well as being a 30 year member of the AGA.

So sad to hear - He offered a teaching game on DGS a decade ago that became a ~100 match jubango, and slowly working up from losing at 9 stones to even games was the background to my journey into go. I wish I'd had a chance to play him in his prime, he'd mostly retired from go by that point. It was a style from another era, 3-4 shimari's; tight territorial play. It's strange to think that his particular fingerprint of style is gone. After enough games you can start to see certain positions through somebody else's eyes.

He was an avid homesteader - a vegetarian who grew almost everything he ate. An unique individual who will truly be missed.

Gosh dang it... Mortality sucks.

DrStraw will be missed. I met him on KGS a long time ago.

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be immersed

DrStraw is another person in the Go community that I never met face to face. Yet I feel that I came to know him quite well through his many posts here, his activities on KGS, etc. I will miss him.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Sorry to be blunt, but is there any proof that he died, or is this another Bozulich?
I rather liked Steve, and if he did die in an accident that's terrible. If it's just somebody having a laugh, that's worse.

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North Lecale

I have no proof. Of course it crossed my mind as well there's a bad joke at play. I wanted to add "I hope not" but that would be a morbid remark. So if it turns out to be untrue I apologize. I just wanted to point out someone called "lefrog" has mentioend this on SL.

Sadly the bad news does appear to be true.
I found an obituary notice here https://nrvnews.com/fawthrop-stephen/
No mention of the nature of the accident

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North Lecale

I was hoping it wouldn't be true . . .

I've been googling this every day, and came here to post the same article. It's sad to hear this. I hope his family can find comfort.

Life is short... It wasn't that long ago that DrStraw was the person with the greatest number of posts on godiscussions.com...

I guess it points to the value of the short time we have on earth. That's not totally comforting, though.

I wish I had gotten the opportunity to meet Steve in person.

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be immersed

I didn't know Steve was a resident of Floyd, VA. It's a few hours south of me, and is well-known for its small-town, free-spirited vibe. Living in a straw house is unusual, but it sounds less unusual knowing it was in Floyd.

I'm glad we got to be a part of his life, which seems to have been well-lived.

I’m very sorry to hear this. He was not just skilled at Go but wise in a broader sense. There is no way he could have possibly known the striking effect some of his perceptive comments (on off-topic matters) had on me, and as my reaction to those comments was the first step in many strange things that have happened over the last 8 years you could without exaggeration credit poor Dr. Straw with waking me from my dogmatic slumbers. He probably did not intend to rob me of the time to play and discuss Go, but no one is perfect. He will be sorely missed.