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In memory of my friend Kevin Martin (digger)

George Spellwin

George Spellwin

The Architect
Staff member
Administrator
Elite Moderator
Moderator
Dear friends,

My close friend and our web site's systems administrator, Kevin Martin, died yesterday of a heart attack. Most of you knew Kevin as Digger, a beloved administrator here on our forums.

Kevin died unexpectedly of a heart attack during treatment of his newly-diagnosed colon cancer. His wife Laura was with him.

And while I'm told that in some ways, this may be a blessing in disguise with colon cancer and chemotherapy is being the terrible ordeal that it is, I also know that Kevin was definitely not ready to leave us.

Kevin was paid to manage our servers, but all his work on our forum was completely volunteer. I know that Kevin loved you guys and that he made some of his best friendships here on the site. And although I don't know that much about him on a personal level, I do know that through you, Kevin discovered a social side of himself that had perhaps before been a little underdeveloped. More of a computer person, Kevin was never a bodybuilder, but I am told that as he influenced the forums, the forums had influenced him too - helping him lose some significant weight and get in better shape.

The Elite Fitness business is such an adventure and Kevin and I had plenty of adventures over the last eight years. And I have so many wonderful memories of him. Kevin was instrumental in moving our servers to Canada from New York so we could provide you with increased privacy. Kevin loved comic books and named each of our servers after one of the X-Men. There was the time we had to meet with the Secret Service. The time Kevin returned a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate to me because he thought Amazon was guilty of spamming and could not support them. And the time he returned to me a $100 gift certificate to Starbucks because he thought I had sent it to get him to work more on the EliteFitness.com account. And the times, it happened twice, when he tried to go to Vancouver to work locally on our servers and was stopped at the border and made to return to the US because he was bringing too many RAM chips with him. There was also the time when he was in Vancouver and I was concerned that the hotel I put him in would be to his liking. Kevin was only concerned that there be a fast, unlimited Internet connection for him to use. And everyone who knew him knew that he hated to talk on the phone.

Kevin helped our team make so many of my crazy ideas possible without ever being judgmental. Kevin took what we do here and what this site stands for as seriously as I do - as if he too was an owner. And Kevin had one of the strongest senses of fairness and ethics of anyone I have ever known.

Kevin was one of those people who I just assumed would always be there for us and someone I never thought the community would be without. He loved his work and he was so good at it that it never occurred to me that we would ever have to try to run this site without him. When we launched Elite Fitness in 1996, we had one server and I could manage a lot of it myself. But since then, the site has grown so much, we have 10 or so servers, and managing them is far beyond my abilities. Kevin ran our systems and made all the magic here seem effortless.

I have known Kevin since 2001. And he has left an amazing legacy here.

About two weeks ago, Kevin sent me the following email.

"Well, gotta break the bad news sooner or later. Spoke to my
fetching new oncologist today, and the bottom line is she gives me
roughly two years. No guarantees either way, but that's how the
smart money bets. I get an even chance to see "Iron Man 2," anyway."

"I plan to work until I drop, and frankly I need EF as much as it
needs me... But it's not too early to find someone for a detailed
knowledge transfer."
Click to expand...

I got this email right after our hugely successful upgrade to the forums - something we never could have done without Kevin's help. Since I got Kevin's email, I have been thinking of how to tell him how much he meant to me and to the site and to the forums and to our members. But, I waited to tell him how much he meant to me because I was scared and because I wanted to tell him how I felt in just the right way, and because I thought I had plenty of time. And now, I've lost the opportunity and I won't ever have it again. But it may make me feel a little bit better to share what I might have said with you.

Kevin, my life is fuller today and I am a better person because you became a part of it. Our thriving community would not be at all like it is today had you not been a part of it. Your legacy here is tremendous. And I will be forever sorry that I did not have the chance to tell you goodbye. I already miss you terribly.

Cards or gifts in memory of Kevin can be sent to his wife at the following address:

Laura McCarthy
c/o Brass Cannon
P.O. Box 82783
Portland, OR 97282

Please note, since this is a PO Box, you may only send to this address using the US Postal Service, no UPS, no FedEx.

Your in sport,

George
 
Last edited:
This was by far the worst news I have heard in a while. This may only be a web site, but these people are real...These lives matter. Digger and I always got along, and I am surely going to miss his presence here on ef..May he rest in peace and may his wife find peace during this rough time.
 
:rose:RIP Digger:rose:

God bless his family.
 
Very sorry to hear.....my condolences for his family
 
Truely shocking. it's like losing a family member you never met, but cared more about?

RIP big DIGGS!!
 
Wow this is terrible terrible news. :( :(

Rip Digger!!!

maybe he's gonna go hang out with guardian for a bit and watch over things.

I hope he's at a better place, my prayers go out to his family.
 
My prayers and condolences go out to his family.........

RIP Digger......
 
:(
I feel very sad. I wish he is living with the Gods in a better time and a better place.
 
<--- :(
i've been upset and crying ever since I heard.

you guys have no idea how much digger helped this site run smoothly. in so many ways. he was also a very caring person with a great sense of humor.

I'll miss you digger.
 
He did nothing but help out so quickly, and I just always thought he was really cool even though I didn't know him well.
This is horrible.
 
Really sorry to hear, he had his sense of humor right up until the end.
 
I got to know digger very well in the last year. I got to work along side him on the great site. I learned so much from him. He was a great mentor to me in so many ways. He was a personal friend to angel and prob one of the only men I trusted to talk with her when ever they did.

This is ef's biggest lose ever. He did so much for the site. So much more then most of us ever saw. I got to se a glimpse of it in the last year and he was a great man to work and learn from. He was hard but always caring.

My family has also been morning him for some time now to. We will miss him. I will miss him. He will no longer be here to guide me. So from now one I have to think to myself (what would digger want me to do).

rip digger. damn this sucks.
 
I was actually having a conversation through three pms with him on Monday
He never responded to my last question, and I thought it was rather odd.

I'm speechless, that's tragic. :rose:
 
It was already a bad day for me all around. Hurricane bearring down on Florida,relationship trouble,now this. Ouch should have stayed in bed.
 
needtogetaas said:
I got to know digger very well in the last year. I got to work along side him on the great site. I learned so much from him. He was a great mentor to me in so many ways. He was a personal friend to angel and prob one of the only men I trusted to talk with her when ever they did.

This is ef's biggest lose ever. He did so much for the site. So much more then most of us ever saw. I got to se a glimpse of it in the last year and he was a great man to work and learn from.
He was hard but always caring.
Click to expand...

My family has also been morning him for some time now to. We will miss him. I will miss him. He will no longer be here to guide me. So from now one I have to think to myself (what would digger want me to do).

rip digger. damn this sucks.
Click to expand...
This is how I kind of imagined him, sincere, doesn't mince words, and just a straightforward bro, I knew he was smart as hell, but just the way he communicated, you could kind of sense he was real in every sense of the word. Not a quality that goes around alot.
 
wow - this was totally unexpected and incredibly sad.

at least he is currently experiencing something that only we here can only debate about and barely begin to fathom.

best of luck on your journey, dig.
 
Stunning and sobering news indeed.
 
RIP digger. He did an amazing job on this site and I have no doubt he was just as amazing IRL.

Things like this really bring life into perspective.
 
WOW I like everyone else is shocked...speechless....very very sad! Digger was one of the best people here on Elite. He had the best sense of humor...He was always willing to help you out if you needed it and he was always willing to tell you the way it was...Oh man..it is really like losing a good friend that you have known for along time. Well Digger may you find peace now and we all know you will be laughing when you look down and watch us lock threads, piss members off, get the mebers going (did that one time and he yelled at me lol)...Rest in peace my friend and may god bless your soul. Praying for his family though this tough time!
 
mrplunkey said:
RIP digger. He did an amazing job on this site and I have no doubt he was just as amazing IRL.

Things like this really bring life into perspective.
Click to expand...

And another thing I neglected to mention...

Dig (and EF's) transition to the new system was masterful. That guy (or guys) did something seamlessly and ahead of schedule that was impressive. I've seen dozens of fucked-up upgrades -- especially my own.

So props to you dig and again, RIP.
 
I swear to God I'm almost in tears right now, and I don't cry :(

Digger was a friend. I knew him through EF, but I considered him a friend. We shared many good conversations.

I'm so sad right now I want to just cry :(
 
Holy God.....

This is terrible.

RIP Digger. You were a good man.
 
I'm in terrible pain from losing one of my best friends.
Kevin was a unique individual and I will never know anybody else like him.
 
No way bors...This is a monumental loss for the community. I cannot begin to address the sympathy I have towards his family and friends...but in this day and age I am almost certain he is in a better place.

R.I.P. Digger.....We will miss you!!!

Tyler B.
:Chef: :tuc:
 
man, diggs and i butted heads on numerous occasions
he could be cantekerous, he could be scathing, he could be a dick...but at the end of the day, he was fair and forgiving
may his memory live in on EF
 
There is just no word to Express the LOVE I feel for Digger/ Kevin.
He was so good in real life many have no idea....

I had the honor of talking with Kevin Often and he was the Best older friend a young man could have.
There was Never a word that came from Kevin that was not GOOD , sincere , of care, affection, and just being NICE.

I Will NEVER FORGET you Kevin NEVER....... God is with you and the good of things now I just KNOW it.

you were LOVED by those you shared with, not liked......... LOVED.

What a loss, it is beyond any an all words............we'll never be the same without Digger.......

I Love you Kevin as Family and I am glad I had a couple of times to express that to you .........
I looked up to you and always will.



I will NEVER ever EVER forget you
or how you were so Noble, Strong, Fair and Kind. NEVER
 
Last edited:
So sad. Fucking horrible really. This coming 2 days after a friend of mine died at age 47 of a heart attack. Life is so ephemeral it makes me feel like I'm living on fumes.

Live it up brothers. We're all on borrowed time.
 
This is the most Depressing news i have heard in a long time,I Talked to Digger EVERY Day When I Was Mod, He was a classy guy and a TRUE Friend...My sincere condolences go out to his Family.


SO LONG OLD FRIEND YOU WERE A CLASS ACT AND I FOR ONE WILL MISS YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!


RADAR
 
This is the most Depressing news i have heard in a long time,I Talked to Digger EVERY Day When I Was Mod, He was a classy guy and a TRUE Friend...My sincere condolences go out to his Family.


SO LONG OLD FRIEND YOU WERE A CLASS ACT AND I FOR ONE WILL MISS YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!


RADAR
 
I hate death. Death is defeat. It doesn't seem right that Digger was cheated before he even got a chance to put up a fight.
 
this is just terrible. oh god it makes me send an email to everyone that I know and care about to tell them that I do love them.
 
Online relationships are unusual and untraditional. I'm a professional in this business, I work from another part of the world with many people who are 20.000 kms. away from me, whose names/ages/identities(sometimes genders) I never know, who I never talked to personally nor even seen a photo of them but there are so many people among them who I like, respect and even see as friends at times.

I worked with Kevin since 2002. It was a professional relationship. Maybe we have exchanged thousands of emails but never see eachother, never talked to eachother on phone, never even see eachother pictures. I didn't even know how old he was. Yet I feel like I know him very well and respect him so much. He was the only server admin, who got into my "recommended professionals" list although I worked with literally hundreds of server admins around the globe in my profession. He was timely, smart, expert in his business, definetely one of the best in his field. He was so responsive, as mentioned in my personal blog, you could assume he was living inside the server. Whenever a technical problem showed up, he was right on it in seconds and there was nothing he couldn't handle or got stuck in his business.

EF is one of the largest online communities in the world and it is not possible for regular visitors to know how much work, dedication, knowledge, efforts and expertise it requires to run it flawlessly. Digger was the magician behind the scenes to make it happen. He will be terribly missed.

My deepest condolences to his family, friends and entire EF community.

This was his last post in EF:
In a world without... Don LaFontaine
Dang. :(
Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies
Click to expand...
Back to you Kevin:

In a world without... Digger
Dang. :(
Digger, server administration, dies.


avatar30019_10.gif

With our respect..
Rest in Peace..
 
Last edited:
He will be missed. I wish I would have had a chance to say goodbye. RIP good bro.
 
I got an email from an old EF friend I hadnt heard from in a while - opened it anticipating a laugh that his emails always bring. Instead it was the news of digger's passing. doesnt get more upside down then that.

As a member, Digger and I did battle for years "debating" where the line was on photochops and ballbusting in general. He was one of a very tiny group of authority figures, e-life or real-life, that had the touch. You toe'd the line he set because you wanted to, not because you had to - like you didnt want to disappoint him :(


As a mod, I got to know him better, and my respect and admiration for him as a person and a professional grew.

I can't imagine EF without digger. this is really sad.

RIP Diggs. I'll miss you bro.
 
George-

I'm sorry to hear about this. Many of us never knew him, but from what you explained, I'm sure we all agree that he is a tremendous loss to EF and to this world.
God bless his family and close friends who will by far miss him the most.
 
i just do not know what to say--i tried to write something to embody the man that was Kevin and the personae that was Digger--both of whom i considered a friend and mentor.

my heartfelt condolences to Kevin's family--please know how much he meant to us here--he was a indeed a good man and will be missed every day.

rest in peace my friend.
 
Wow...just wow.

Any chance we could create a collection to make a donation in his name to cancer research? Something near the end of the year where people can use it as a tax write-off?
 
This is a sad surprise. Definitely a massive void left on the site now. It sounds like he was truly a class act, someone we could all learn a lot from. Many condolences to his family and closest friends.

PS I love how he named all the servers after X-Men. A great example that someone's job meant much more to them than a job.
 
He was a valuable asset and a great man. My heart goes out to his family. R.I.P. He will be missed.
 
I've seen more than a few colon cancer cases at the end
he's better off
 
Digger held me e-hand on more than one occasion when all of the vultures relentlessly kept picking at my bleeding carcass. If it weren't for his protection and extremely delicate treatment of my situation and ME, as a human being, EF and I would have parted ways years ago for good. I am beyond happy that digger was here and that he cared about ME... not BIKINIMOM, but about ME, the fragile human being fraught with frailties and faults. He never met me IRL, nor did we ever speak on the telephone, but countless PM's were exchanged and he helped me to see the site, myself and life from a different perspective when I felt I was at the bottom of a downward spiral with NO HOPE for recovery.

It was he that recommended I see the movie, "A Good Woman" with Helen Hunt... You all can't know how that changed my life when I needed it most. It was from that film that I got the quote that was in my signature for a very long time: "Every saint has a past and every sinner a future."

Digger... my girls are so close to us. Thank you for being my e-friend and understanding and helping ME to understand and make sense of so much senselessness.

My heart goes out to his family. I am certain he was dearly loved.

Emilia
 
I am so very sorry to hear about this.

Digger was such an asset to the EF family.
I knew we had a special person when Digger came here. He seemed more like a Daddy than a computer person;
or just someone that came to the board to chat.
He was there to help in anyway he could and to try and sort things out for us.

My heart and prayers go out to his family.

:Pamela: May God hold him close!
 
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