Remembering Andy Baker
We are immensely sad to learn of the death, on 1 June, of Andy Baker, joint founder and organiser of the brilliant Cotswold Raspberry Jam. Andy had been suffering from brain cancer.
Together with co-founder Andrew Oakley, Andy worked incredibly hard to make the Cotswold Jam one of the most exciting Jams of all, with over 150 people of all ages attending its most popular events. He started working with Raspberry Pis back in 2012, and developed a seriously impressive degree of technical expertise: among his projects were a series of Pi-powered quadcopters, no less, including an autonomous drone. Many of us will forever associate Andy with a memorably fiery incident at the Raspberry Pi Big Birthday Weekend in 2016, which he handled with grace and good humour that eludes most of us:
Andy maintained his involvement with the Raspberry Pi community, and especially the Cotswold Jam, for several years while living with a brain tumour, and shared his skills and enthusiasm with hundreds of others. He was at the heart of the Raspberry Pi community. When our patron, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, kindly hosted a reception at St. James’s Palace in October 2016 to recognise the Raspberry Pi community, Andy joined us to celebrate in style:
Cheers, Ben! Fab photo of Prince Andrew being ignored by @davejavupride & Andy Baker @PiStuffing who are too busy drinking… "It's what he would have wanted…" :-)https://t.co/FK7sk1CoDs
— Cotswold Jam (@CotswoldJam) June 11, 2019
Andy suggested that, if people would like to make a donation in his name, they support his local school’s IT department, somewhere else he used to volunteer. The department isn’t able to accept online donations, but cheques in pounds sterling can be made out to “Gloucestershire County Council” and posted to a local funeral director who will collect and forward them:
Andy Baker memorial fund
c/o Blackwells of Cricklade
Thames House
Thames Lane
Cricklade
SN6 6BH
We owe Andy immense gratitude for all his work to help people learn and have a great time with Raspberry Pi. We were very lucky indeed to have him as part of our community. We will miss him.
11 comments
Olive
Rip…
Liz Upton
Andy was a wonderful, inspiring, kind man, and tirelessly generous with his time and knowledge. We’ll miss him so much. My thoughts and Eben’s are with his family and friends.
Reik Hua
Is it true? My friend Andy, i always longing communicate with you face to face when i have chance visit UK.
Will miss you forever!
Reik Hua from China
Matt Hawkins
I met Andy a few times and what he did with his drones was truly outstanding. He was told he couldn’t make a real-time flight system on a Pi using Python. He did it anyway.
Victor Rodas
There is no doubt that this sweet man shall be missed. I never got to know him even though I have designed and 3D printed drones for five years. (I’m pretty new with Raspberry). My condolences to his family and friends.
Mr Colin J Woods
I was sad to read this, my condolences to the family, rest assured that a lot of kids (and adults) have been inspired..
solar3000
I don’t remember Mr Baker.
Very sad loss indeed. And particularly at such a young age.
Cosmofm
The raspberry pi community will mis him very much.
Henri Heuzé
RIP.
Anne Carlill
Andy’s sad loss has made me think hard. If he can do his _Jam activities_ when he was so ill, I am going to redouble my efforts to make our Jam, York Raspberry Jam, work well. I’m not at the level of skill of making drones. That was amazing! But I can do my bit and when I feel exhausted at the end of a Jam I’ll just think of the inspiring Andy.
Andrew Oakley, you have been an inspiration to me too. We’ll be thinking of you as you cope with the loss.
Zaheer
May his soul rest in peace…. he was a brilliant guy. Learned a lot from his blog and experiences, you will always be remembered in the community.