Letter to a Friend
Dear Cary,
I am deeply saddened to hear of your passing. You were one of my early heroes in computer publishing. I remember first meeting you in 1984 through your book, The Apple Macintosh. At the time, as a fellow editor and writer working at a competing computer book publisher, I held your work up as a beautiful work of technology journalism; it was to me, the model to which computer publishing could aspire.
As one of the early editors at Macworld magazine, I had the great pleasure to meet and to work with you. You were a true professional, and one of the rare writers who possessed deep understanding of the technology, yet a brilliance for simplicity in your use of language. Personally I admired the fact that you were so approachable and down to earth.
In your columns and features in High Technology magazine, your insights and clear explanations always had something of value to teach me as a young editor in computer journalism. As a fellow Asian American, and one of the few such computer journalists in the industry at the time, I regarded you as an inspiration to help me to grow.
Cary, please know that my life has been made better for knowing you. Your spirit will remain alive. I'm sure we will meet again and I know as we gather around the demo of some fantastic new technology, you will smile with that wry, knowing smile of yours and come up with a gem of a line to cut through the hype and thereby spread wisdom and understanding among us all.
As a fellow traveler in search of enlightenment,
In your memory I remain,
Yours truly
David Ushijima
Spetember 30, 1997