"Think and feel!" by Friedrich Alexander Lohmüller
It is with sadness that the Persistence of Vision Raytracer community advises that Friedrich Lohmüller – a long-time contributor – passed away in December of 2017.
For more than two decades Friedrich had contributed his expertise in all things POV-Ray-related to the user community. On his personal website (f-lohmueller.de) Friedrich created a huge collection of "how to" and tutorials which are considered one of the definitive unofficial references to the program. He also frequented the POV-Ray user forums where he offered advice and help:
Friedrich A. Lohmueller is/was like the go-to guy for all things POV-Ray. His art was beautiful, his explanations clear, and on the occasions when we exchanged email, he was as nice and humble as can be.
Friedrich also crafted the Insert Menu of ready-made objects, code snippets and scene templates that are found in several versions of POV-Ray that have a graphical UI:
Many years ago Friedrich and I collaborated on a massively-improved insert menu for POV-Ray for Windows (my contribution was limited to code support; Friedrich did all the heavy lifting). It was a pleasure working with him to create this major enhancement to the program.
Friedrich spent his life learning and teaching, and he has ensured the knowledge he acquired about POV-Ray and related topics did not pass with him. His website is a treasure of advice and resources. His posts on our forums and the help he offered to other users remain as a permanent record of his kindness and dedication. Finally, the knowledge he embedded via the templates and extensive code in the insert menu has in turn been passed on with every one of the more than ten million downloads of POVWIN since, and is still to this day aiding users in creating their raytraced art.
A true teacher and mentor to many of us, he taught, in his professional life, Mathematics, Physics, and IT to A-level, at his local school.
In den 80er Jahren entdeckte Friedrich POV-ray.
Es wurde seine neue Leidenschaft
und blieb es bis zu seinem Tod.
Jedes neue Programm und jeder noch leistungsfähigere
Rechner wurden sofort angeschafft.
In den 80ern und 90ern war das noch eine große Herausforderung.
Mit dem Internet wurde es besser,
aber irgendwie auch noch rassanter.
POV-ray war sein Leben bis kurz vor seinem,
leider viel zu frühen Tod.
Wir waren waren 44 Jahr verheiratet und hatten uns
die Rente natürlich anders vorgestellt.
Aber es war für mich ein Leben langes lernen :).
Es kommt immer anders als man denkt.
With the consent of Friedrich's widow, Andrea, the content of f-lohmueller.de is now being hosted on the povray.org server by private initiative of volunteers and will be permanently preserved as an archive of their works. For technical details of changes required for the re-hosting and related information, please consult the copyright page.
Rest In Peace, Friedrich.