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Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n Friends who knew Ron Swartzendruber best describe him as someone who built bridges — a man who connected databases as much as he connected people. On Feb. 19, he passed away at the age of 48 after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest, and is survived by his wife, Whitney Ware; parents, Warren and Jackie; and brother, Erik.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bill Kernan, the Director of the University Computing Services department, is the man who originally hired Swartzendruber back when the university\u2019s server was on a PC sitting in the basement of the Administrative Building. Though it was originally thought that he would only be staying for five years, Swartzendruber went on to dedicate over 21 years of service to Western as one of its main programmers at UCS. Western\u2019s portal, as well as many other programs utlized on campus, are credited, in part, to Swartzendruber\u2019s endeavors. The campus lost an asset in the programming world, but those at UCS lost a friend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kolis Crier, the Banner Solutions and Integrations Manager at UCS, recalled the first time he met Swartzendruber, saying \u201che had a welcoming and happy spirit \u2026 and an infectious laugh.\u201d Crier, whose desk has neighbored Swartzendruber\u2019s for years, added that, \u201che was always engaged, he always had the answer, or was willing to share information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yet, according to Kernan, he had no ego whatsoever \u2014\u00a0 a characteristic that Kernan called a \u201crarity\u201d in the IT world, considering Swartzendruber\u2019s intelligence. In fact, Swartzendruber was an active member on Quora, an online platform for sharing information, where it was discovered he made over 5,000 posts in his lifetime, many of them responses to people struggling with personal issues.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRon had a ministry on Quora. He helped thousands of people he didn\u2019t know, for no other reason than the fact that he likes helping people,\u201d said Tony Manso, the Mobile and Systems Programmer at UCS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In one of the last posts before his passing, Swartzendruber responded to a prompt that read \u201cIs it good to demonize the reality of our world by making it worse in our mind and then experience it with less pain?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n His answer?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf we have trained ourselves to expect the worst, it would be far harder to choose anything besides staying in our comfort zone and letting life pass us by …. that\u2019s too high a price for whatever reduction in pain we might get gain in exchange,\u201d said Swartzendruber.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A man who always wore Birkenstocks unless it was snowing, and who loved Sci-fi and Cliff Bars, Swartzendruber was \u201ca teacher \u2026 and the glue between many of the staff and groups at UCS,\u201d according to Michael Ellis, the Assistant Director of UCS.<\/span><\/p>\n Members of the UCS team have identified over 40 projects in which Swartzendruber was the main contributor. They are currently collaborating in order to finish what he left behind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRon\u2019s scope was so large, that we\u2019re just having to pick off the most important ones first,\u201d said Kernan.<\/span><\/p>\n Since Swartzendruber was an avid cyclist who biked to work every day and once even across the United States, there are plans for one of his bicycles to be incorporated into a sculpture in his memory. And, there will be two services to honor Swartzendruber; one will be a private family service, and the other will be held at Western on March 14th to celebrate his contributions to the university and to his campus community.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2020\/03\/USC3-color-1024x731.jpg\")
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