Clark Goble Has Passed Away.

[_Lemmie]

I found this interesting background, from when Clark began posting at T&S:

Clark Goble on deck.
by Frank McIntyre • April 15, 2016 • 22 Comments
We’re delighted to welcome Clark Goble back to T&S!

Clark grew up in Canada in that part that appears like a strange looking foot extending south and east of Maine. There in the city of Halifax he watched the church grow from a small branch into numerous wards eventually even getting a temple. His father taught physics there which must have been addictive since both Clark and his brother studied physics as well. Clark always dreamt of going on a foreign mission and prayed that this would be so. He soon realized that God both had a sense of humor and that it was tied to overly literal interpretations of prayers when he was sent from Canada to Louisiana. Upon returning to BYU Clark decided he had a masochistic streak and studied mathematics, physics and philosophy until being informed by numerous letters that he had far too many credits to be allowed to continue at BYU.

During this era Clark was part of the initial burst of discussion in mailing lists. He was on the original Eyring-L discussing science and religion, Morm-Ant discussing Mormonism and antiquities including the Book of Mormon, and Mormon-L a more social and quasi-politically oriented list. After a few years he left Mormon-L as its tone changed. He ended up running the Eyring-L and Morm-Ant mailing lists for a few years until passing the reigns. He was one of the early members of the LDS-Phil mailing list which remarkably is still running, albeit at a much lower volume than in those early heady days.

Some time around 2003 or 2004 blogs started becoming popular. Clark became a member of the first group blog, The Metaphysical Elders, when invited by Nate Oman. He quickly showed himself an idiot by creating two accounts and getting into an argument with himself as critiqued by a 19th pragmatist.

Around the same time Clark started his first religious blog, Mormon Metaphysics primarily focused on analyzing the philosophy of Orson Pratt. It quickly decided there wasn’t as much behind Pratt as most thought and instead considered many issues from the perspective of pragmatism and Heideggarian styled phenomenology. The blog has gone up and down and tends to get bursts of posts depending upon how busy Clark is at work. Also how much he can remember of what he’s read after years of sleep deprivation from little toddlers waking up at night plays more than a small role as well.

For work Clark worked summers and part-time at school for Los Alamos National Laboratory in inertial confinement fusion largely working on programs analyzing the nuclear explosions being conducted. After graduation Clark did IT work for a few years and then started a computer company primarily dealing with linguistic software. He wrote the original spellchecker for BBEdit for all you Apple greybeards from the 90’s. He also wrote most of the search and indexing technology for Adobe Acrobat if you use that. About 10 years ago he and his business partners started up a chocolate company, Amano Chocolate, on the side. Clark ended up being a major part of the wave of bean to bar chocolate makers who brought a more pre-war artisanal style of chocolate making to the United States. He’s won awards around the world for his chocolate including being picked by the New York Times in January as best chocolate in America.

Clark obviously has pretty varied interests. On Mormon topics he’s constantly fascinated by the statistics about Mormonism – especially its growth and retention. He also can’t help himself from analyzing all the ontological views related to various speculations over the years on Mormon theology.

We have long been delighted to have Clark commenting on Times and Seasons and are delighted to have him back again as a guest blogger. Welcome!

https://www.timesandseasons.org/harchiv ... index.html

[_Kishkumen]

Learning of the passing of someone I respect is akin to learning of the passing of a friend. Clark and I were not friends, but I wish we had been. He was a gentleman and a scholar. And I echo many of the sentiments above. One could have a reasonable and enlightening discussion of Mormonism with him, and he was much more tolerant than most of disagreement, and non-believing, critical viewpoints. My heart goes out to his family. He was not very old, and he and his spouse have young children at home, I believe. This is truly awful.

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Learning of the passing of someone I respect is akin to learning of the passing of a friend. Clark and I were not friends, but I wish we had been. He was a gentleman and a scholar. And I echo many of the sentiments above. One could have a reasonable and enlightening discussion of Mormonism with him, and he was much more tolerant than most of disagreement, and non-believing, critical viewpoints. My heart goes out to his family. He was not very old, and he and his spouse have young children at home, I believe. This is truly awful.

Well said. Clark was just 49 years old.

I found this very interesting article about Clark. It sounds like he was a good guy:

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/1 ... 0310/full/

[_Philo Sofee]

This just hurts my heart. I'm sorry to hear this. I was decent friends with him, but when I figured out things wouldn't work for me, he never condemned me or made fun of me but always willing to talk and share his ideas and insights. I enjoyed bantering with him. I wish the best for all his family. A sad day.

[_Doctor Scratch]

I’m really sorry to hear this, too. I didn’t know Goble very well, but what I saw of him was always positive. He seemed fair-minded and honest. My condolences to his loved ones.

[_Dr Exiled]

I always found him to be a gentleman in discussions over at MD&D. I will miss reading his comments. I hope his family is taken care of. Passing at 49 probably means he has some young ones at home still.

[_Tom]

Yes, he had some young children. A fund has been created to assist his family:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/clark-goble? ... Rdph8v1H-g

[_Aristotle Smith]

Oh my, this one is so very very sad. He was a good guy.

He was my introduction to Mormonism on the internet. Many years ago I was interested in philosophical aspects of Mormonism so I typed "philosophy Mormonism" into Google and the first page I ever visited on the subject was Goble's Mormon Metaphysics. I posted a lot there for a few months enjoying the conversation while it lasted. He would have a burst of posts and then go silent for weeks or months. The first time it happened I was sad and missed the conversation partner.

We share a lot in common. Both BYU physics majors, he graduated 5 years before me. We both had a lot of interests in philosophy. We both ended up in programming. So sad and scary when someone so close in interests and age passes away. I hope his family is well and wish the best for them.

[_Lemmie]

I am very sad for Clark’s family.

In the first interaction I had with him, he was incredibly rude and condescending. He informed me something about how in between the a and d keys on my keyboard I could find an s key that would enable a google search, wherein I could educate myself! The only problem being that I already posted a very educated post, to which he gave a very uneducated and snotty response. Later, on mormondialogue, he announced that he was abused by posters here, and that although he admitted that he gave back as good as he got, he should be excused because he was dealing with... well, “life.”

Because no person who has left the lds church also has a “life,” right?

That was my first introduction to Clark Goble, and sadly, it will apparently be my last. The divide that lds members put up, wherein they define those who have left the faith as somehow less in worth than other (lds) human beings will forever leave a divide that harms and damages. That is the legacy of the lds church.

Rest In Peace, Clark. The divide you saw between us in life does not exist.

[_moksha]

I am saddened to hear of Clark's death. Condolences to his family, friends, and the Mormon Discussions and Dialogue board where we knew him.