If you’ve been reading the other CAD blogs, then Joe Greco’s passing will not be news to you.

During the many years that Joe wrote for CADENCE, we came to talk often about our passion of 3D modeling and the technology that surrounds it, and when I left the magazine business recently and decided to strike out on my own, Joe was one of the first people I talked with about what areas of the industry needed more attention, and as always, his comments were insightful and pertinent.

When I arrived at Autodesk University on Sunday last month, I checked in to my hotel and then made a beline for the Betty Boop bar, where many of us would meet at 7ish every year, on the evening before the first day of the conference. When I discovered Joe wasn’t there, I dialed his phone, half-expecting to hear a doppler shift as it rang nearby, but instead found out he was still in Arizona, snowed-in.

Four days later, he was gone, and will be missed by all fortunate enough to have known him.