Last Wednesday, Greg Bailey passed away after 13 years of battling cancer. (see obituary below) I’ll just post a few thoughts about what Greg meant to me and the profound impact that he had on my life. Here’s a pic that Leroy Schulz took in front of my house about 10 years ago Clubbin’ With Greg | Miguelito's Little Green Car. We are all connected.
Back in the early 90s, I was just learning a bit about Clarion, I had done a little bit of BASIC programming, but nothing significant, so I was pretty green. Started with Personal Developer and took baby steps. Then I found a BBS (remember those?) that had a post on it mentioning a user group meeting at the Riverside Computer Center with these people who were giving a spiel about LPM (Ann and (pre-Keith) Dave Howington). Greg was an LPM user and I think might have done some work with Logix as well.
I think this was right around the time that Clarion 3.0 came out. I had started out with it, but it was way over my head at the time, to be honest. So with my current lack of expertise, the “Shark switch” thing seemed to be exactly what I needed, because they made it simple enough for nubes to get something done, and enough woo woo to make it seem like the magic I needed, and I bought LPM.
So I started attending Greg’s user group meetings. And he was amazingly supportive to his attendees. He walked us through why the “LOOP UNTIL EOF” was usually not as good as plain old “LOOP”, and stuff like that. Otherwise, my only teacher was the generated code from the models. I absolutely treasured his meetings and couldn’t wait for the next one. We talked about LPM and Plain old Clarion.
After a year or so, when I was thinking of writing apps for money, it was Greg who made sure I didn’t undersell myself and made me feel like I was worth something in this business. After I got some of my more crappy apps out of the way, Greg referred me to one of his existing clients and things really took off. There is nobody who had a greater impact in my Clarion world than Gregory C. Bailey.
He was a sweet, kind, generous, bright, and honest man. I will miss him.
Best wishes to all.
Here is the public obituary provided by his wife Linnie:
It is with deep sadness that I must announce the death of my husband of 31 years, Greg Bailey. Our kids and I were with him at home when he passed on Wednesday. Greg succumbed after a valiant 13 year battle with Stage 4 Cancer. In November of 2007, he went to the doctor with what he thought was a golf injury – a sore shoulder that got progressively worse. They found tumors throughout his spine and he was given 18 months to two years to live. He was 52. Our children were nine and 16. I didn’t think he would live to see our oldest graduate from high school. But God….
He lived to see BOTH kids graduate college and become outstanding young adults. You see as Greg and I sat in the car in the parking lot outside USC Keck that November we decided the only thing we could do was just keep going. And that’s what we did. It was not easy, there were many ups and downs and treatments for him – rounds of radiation, chemo, and clinical trials. Many times we were told the end was near. But God…
He went through three strong chemos over the years. He told me just a couple of weeks ago that he never got to ‘ring the bell.’ You see when patients would finish their rounds of chemo they would ring the bell in the infusion center, signaling they had successfully completed the course of treatment. Greg never got to do this because his chemos were not successful and he’d have to stop after a few rounds. But God….
He didn’t ‘ring the bell’ but he lived! Probably much longer than some of those that did ring it. There is a message here for all who are struggling with a chronic illness or a major challenge and trying to get to the point where they can ‘ring the bell.’ Just keep going! They say life is about the journey, not the destination!
Whatever you’re facing….just keep going!
Greg Bailey Obit:
Greg grew up in Long Beach and attended Long Beach Poly High School where he excelled in academics, basketball, volleyball, and student government. A National Merit Scholar, he attended UCLA where he played JV Basketball and studied Science. After graduating, he began a 40+ year career programming computers and designing software. Many of his programs are still being used.
31 years ago, Greg married fellow Bruin, Linnie Frank and the couple settled in Corona, CA where they raised their family. Greg’s interests throughout the years included Bridge, Golf, Jazz, Old Movies, and BOOKS! (An avid reader, he averaged one book a week for most of his adult life.) His favorite book was “Stranger in a Strange Land” and his favorite movie was “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
In addition to his wife, Greg leaves his children, son Gregory and daughter Kyra. He was the eldest of 7 children – 5 boys and 2 girls. His parents preceded him in death and sadly the siblings lost two other brothers this year.
Never one to complain, Greg played the cards he was given – and he played them well. He would surely say “It Was a Wonderful Life.”
There will be no funeral service, but there will be a celebration of his life next year at the launch of the Bailey Technical Institute. Stay tuned.