The Gentle Giant remembered

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Tom

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Ed Juge, founder of the original RV Forum, passed away on March 31, 2003. The term Gentle Giant was coined during a Virtual Wake  held shortly after his death. It's about the best description I could come up with for this wonderful person.

Ed used to say that he always wanted to be an RVer and, when he left corporate America in 1993, one of his first actions was to buy an RV. One day he realized there was no online place for RVers to share ideas and ask for help, and he created the original RV Forum. Ed used to describe himself as a semi-retired wanabee retiree.

I've attached the following to help folks remember &/or understand Ed:

  • Photo of Ed.
  • Ed's business card showing him as "evangelist" for the use of online media.
  • Ed's professional history

Feel free to add your own comments discussing how you remember Ed.
 

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Thanks for posting that Tom.  Ed was one great guy.  Sam & I were privleged to met him and his sweet wife at the rally in Ruidoso.  They gave several of the framily a tour of the area around Ruidoso including White Sands and Lincoln NM. I think we all should be thankfull for the efforts of Ed Juge in getting the RV Forum started.

 
Tom,

Thanks for the remindeer about Ed.  It was our privilege to meet and get together with him several times at rallies and at his home in Ruidoso.

Ron said:
I think we all should be thankfull for the efforts of Ed Juge in getting the RV Forum started.

Amen to that Ron.
 
Tom,

Nice tribute to Ed. We also met him at QZ and then again at Ruidoso where he provided a great history lesson on Lincoln County. He took a caravan all around the county showing us historical landmarks and explaining some of the history. Billy the Kid was well known in Lincoln County.

 
Thanks y'all. Ed was one of those people you met once and instantly knew he was a great human being.
 
In what year did Ed establish the RV Forum and who were some of the original members?  Are some of the original members still active today?

 
I remember a friend, a friend I still miss.

I remember a pioneer, another man that was going to be 'on-line' whatever it took. He figured out how we could all join him in enjoying his two time consuming hobbies.

I remember a husband deeply in love with Jo, and a father and grand father still loved, admired and respected by them and his many friends.

I'm looking forward to real humdinger of a campfire some day. . .

Adi?s. . .

Bob+
 
Ed's RV Forum changed our lives.  We would not be RV'ing if we had not met him and his group on Compuserve.  Our lives are now rich - rich in friends - rich in experiances - rich in memories of campfires shared and in the splendor of the United States.  Long live Ed.

 
Steve said:
In what year did Ed establish the RV Forum and who were some of the original members?

The forum was going strong in 1995 when I found it.  It even had a resident nudist back then.

Phil
 
Phil said:
Steve said:
In what year did Ed establish the RV Forum and who were some of the original members?

The forum was going strong in 1995 when I found it.? It even had a resident nudist back then.

Phil

I think it was the summer 1994 that the first rally was held at Lake Lewiston near Dallas.  As I recall some of the attendees were CJ, Joe Frost, Joe Lacy, Bill Scott, Rasures, Harlin Smith, and ourselves.  There were several more that attended the lunch at Luby's.  I may be wrong but I think it forum was going in 1993.
 
Steve said:
In what year did Ed establish the RV Forum and who were some of the original members?  Are some of the original members still active today?

I got my first RV in 1990 and just before taking the plunge  I found some discussion of RVing on  the Compuserve Outdoors Forum.  Soon after, the discussion of RVing picked up steam and Ed came along and got us a specific section within the Outdoors Forum. If iI recall correctly that was Section 17. We were there for a while like a year or two, but don't know the exact date Ed actually moved the section in the Outdoors Forum to become the Compuserve RV Forum, but was around 1992.

While on history, I got my first computer in 1981, a huge CPM,  with that Bell modem, believe it was called 212 or something like that, and they guy who set it up got me on Source. Source was a very basic menu driven system but had news wires, some interests sections, and we started transferring small files among my field consultants. Source was bankrolled by Readers Digest and they sold it to Compuserve in late 1980s, so that is how I got on Compuserve. In those days there were Quantum which was aligned to Apple and later broke with Apple and became AOL,  Genie (owned by GE), Delphi, and then Prodigy.

Ye Gads, I am getting so old!

Bob
 
Bob,

I think you got the dates pretty darn close.  We were living in Montreal 1991 - 1993.  As I recall I discovered the Compuserve RV Forum more than  a year before we moved to Houston in Dec 1993.  I was also on The Source as well as Compuserve when The Source was aquired by Compuserve.  We were living in Tokyo, Japan at the time.  As I recall I had joined Compuserve before they aquired The Source because Compuserve  had a Node available in Tokyo that was free to use.

I am sure many of us will always remember Ed the Gentle Giant.
 
Here are a couple of photos of Ed with his wife Jo and one with a few Framily members.
 

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What wonderful photos of Ed!  In addition to RVing, Ed was a HAM radio operator.  Does anyone know his callsign?  I never had the opportunity to make contact with hiom on the air.

Steve, VA3VH, formerly VE2ESV
 
  The two of us remember Ed warmly.  JoAnn and I met Ed (and Jo) on a number of occasions.  We toured Lincoln County in their SUV, visited with them at home, caught up with them at Quartszite, and had dinner with Ed one time here in Atlanta when he was in town attending a conference.

    George & JoAnn/ATL
 
Steve said:
What wonderful photos of Ed!? In addition to RVing, Ed was a HAM radio operator.? Does anyone know his callsign?? I never had the opportunity to make contact with hiom on the air.

Steve, VA3VH, formerly VE2ESV

Sorry top be so late in responding.  G

Ed Juge  W5EJ

Jim
 
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