John Newmarch

The unforgettable — and occasionally un-deletable — John Newmarch

John spent decades at UCT’s IT department, quietly making systems work and pretending Duncan Martin was in charge.

Before that, he was a sailor of note – competing in those wild South Atlantic ocean races where you either become a legend or a missing person.  He wisely chose “legend”.

Later, he traded spinnakers for summit books and became a mountain goat in fleece jackets — co-founding hiking groups galore and leading them up steep things with the calm assurance of a man who already knew how to fix the GPS if it froze.

And of course — in the finest techno–mountaineer tradition — he was the WhatsApp group owner, which is like being Chief Shaman in the digital realm.   So yes — when he passed on — his ghost lingered on in the group ownership registry and refused to leave politely.   Exorcism was eventually required. IT-style.

We miss him — though truthfully we suspect he is still managing permissions  somewhere in the cloud.
…possibly Azure.
…heaven help them.