Plone community mourns the loss of Dorneles Treméa

by Mark Corum — last modified Feb 11, 2011 02:28 AM

The Plone community today mourns the loss of one of our best and brightest, Dorneles Treméa, in a car accident near his home in Garibaldi, Brazil. He was 31 years old. Dorneles was a key Plone developer, a pillar of the Brazilian Plone community, as well as president of the Brazilian Python foundation. He is survived by his wife, Flaviane Machado, and his two daughters — Helen and Ingrid.

Dorneles Treméa

The following was written by his friend and Plone co-founder Alan Runyan and shared with the community on behalf of those who knew Dorneles, and those never lucky enough to have met him in person.

Finding out about losing Dorneles Treméa has been gut-wrenching. He has been one of those silent heroes in my life that you always expect to be there. He was the physical manifestation of Tranquility. It was real joy interacting with him both virtually and physically. Dorneles had tremendous patience and enthusiasm for teaching. If there was an opportunity for him to share anything he knew with someone else — he would take the time to do it.

Many people in the Python, Zope & Plone and Brazilian FOSS communities will feel the hole that Dorneles has left in our collective psyche. I knew Dorneles through the Zope & Plone communities. He always was engaged, interactive, and pushing the software and culture forward. Dorneles was a hacker. He made things better. He translated many different software packages to Portuguese (possibly responsible for the first Plone translation), wrote lots of software and spoke at many conferences. He loved problem solving and sharing.

I will deeply miss him. I will miss signing for the dozens and dozens of online purchases he would have delivered prior to his arrival in Houston. I will miss trying to order him an alcoholic beverage at a bar and him politely declining asking for juice on tap. I will miss skeet shooting with him. I'm looking at his Skype profile picture. The picture is from the last time we went shooting. His computer is still connected to Skype. His status is Away. I IM'ed, “I will miss you.”

Dorneles will be survived by his wife, Flaviane Machado and his two daughters, Helen (11) and Ingrid (8). They live in Garibaldi which is located in southern Brazil. My heart goes out to his wife and children. The only condolence I can give is that there are many places in the world where Dorneles made an impact. In this technical-based FOSS community, Dorneles was a recognized and respected member. He was a great person.

— Alan Runyan

Comments (19)

Steve McMahon Feb 11, 2011 12:17 AM

A terrible loss for Brazil, the Python, Zope and Plone communities, and his many friends. A generous and infectiously joyous person.

Fernando Correa Neto Feb 11, 2011 01:50 AM

Times like these makes me think I should spend more time with my friends...
Dorneles my brother, I'll never forget you. You will now live in my memories. Happy and smiling as you always were.
R.I.P brother

Russ Ferriday Feb 11, 2011 02:00 AM

Oh how sad we feel for Dorneles, his wife, his two children, his family, and his close friends.

We feel sad for our shocked community too. Everyone who knew Dorneles, everyone who worked with him on brief projects, or saw him for short moments at conferences and sprints, appreciated his spirit, simplicity, honesty, integrity, knowledge, and technical skill.

Reading comments today has confirmed my strong impression that Dorneles impressed all who knew him.

Thanks for the memories, Dorneles. We won't forget.

--r

Douglas Soares de Andrade Feb 11, 2011 03:20 AM

Hi all,

Im still shocked with his passing and all i wanted is to sit and cry, cry till the pain disappear but the tears just dont come.

I just have the images of his talks in our pythonbrasil in Curitiba in 2010, of our ultimate loosers snooker game (haha) and when i was helping him selling tshirts for raising funds for pythonbrasil foundation.

Deo is the kind of person you always could rely on as he was always smiling, always making us go forward, making us do and be our best.

I cannot express how much im going to miss such a wonderful person.

Im sure to never, never forget my sensation when coming home today and have the opportunity to hug and tell my children and wife how much i love then and how much they are important to me - perhaps this is what death teaches to us, we never know when will be the last time we will see the people we love most.

My most precious feelings to the family and to our friends who went to Caxias to say goodbye to him.

As said @gniemeyer: "@dorneles My best wishes on the way up. Please prepare a sprint for us to hack together when I get there. I'll be missing you meanwhile.”

I just want to be in that sprint when my time comes.

Cris Ewing Feb 11, 2011 04:05 AM

I only ever met deo in IRC or by mail. Still, the loss feels immediate and raw. We are, first and foremost, a community. Today that community mourns. Rest in peace, deo. You are remembered.

Rajiv Bakulesh Shah Feb 11, 2011 04:46 AM

Deo, you taught me how to be a better software developer, but more importantly, a better human being. I worked with you for 3 years, and every single day, you were in a great mood. You taught me everything I know.

You'd already achieved immortality through the brilliant software that you wrote, but your true legacy is all of the lives that you touched. Your software helped to make the world a more connected place, but even in this interconnected world, you were the sort of person that comes around once in a lifetime - for the lucky.

I'll miss you dearly.

Wyn Williams Feb 11, 2011 05:31 AM

What more can you say that hasn't already been said by those who knew him best ? he was one of those rare people, A truly good man - peaceful journeys Dorneles

Jean Jordaan Feb 11, 2011 07:00 AM

I never interacted directly with Dorneles, but whenever I saw his name on a mailing list I knew it would be worthwhile to read and learn something.

Denys Mishunov Feb 11, 2011 07:39 AM

Dorneles was the "sunniest" person I have ever met in Plone community. He was always happy to talk to people and share his optimism, good mood and experience. He has been of that rare sort of people that you never forget, because he is just special.
I remember, during the Archipelago sprint in Norway, when an airline lost his luggage somewhere on the way… even then, this guy from warm Brazil being in cold Norway without luggage and personal stuff… even then he was full of optimism and smiled all the time.
He was a good developer, but most importantly he was a wonderful human being that is much more valuable in this world.
I write "was", but he really "is" — he is still in the hearts of who knew him and even those who only heard about him. He is still in his family—Flaviane Machado, Helen and Ingrid. He is still in the Plone Community.
It's sunny today after quite nasty days. I hope this means you poured a glass of juice up there and smile again. Peaceful journey, Dorneles. Rest in peace, good man, you will be very much missed.

Danny Bloemendaal Feb 11, 2011 08:06 AM

I will truly miss his smile for all coming conferences. Such a friendly guy. I will miss him.

Matt Hamilton Feb 11, 2011 09:58 AM

I never knew Dorneles particularly well, but even then when I did see him about he was always smiling. I did however know quite a few people who worked with him and who had employed or contracted him. They always spoke really highly of him. I remember when he was first hired by Jarn, Geir Baekholt waxing lyrical about how great this new guy they had found was. That is very high praise indeed! Then to go on to work with Alan at Enfold Systems... you get the pattern about the quality of the guy -- exceptional.

I only knew him via the Plone community, but in seeing all the tweets after his passing from the Brazillian python community, you could see this guy was known, respected and loved in the wider python community even more.

My thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.

-Matt

Giuseppe Romagnoli Feb 11, 2011 12:16 PM

I first met Dornelles in 2004 in FISL(Brazil) when SERPRO was just adopting Plone, since the beginning he was willing to help us. We had been together in Plone Conf 2004 in Vienna. He helped us a lot in pyconbrasil 2008 (Rio) specially giving all suport and his always good advices. Dornels was a incredible guy, good heart, and fantastic ITC professional. We lost a friend !!! Go in peace my friend.

Helge Tesdal Feb 11, 2011 12:36 PM

A devastating loss. Lots of fond memories. You will be sorely missed Dorneles.

Our thoughts go to the family.

Martijn Pieters Feb 11, 2011 01:26 PM

The first time we met, at the Archipelago sprint, you were clinging to Geir's woollen hat, a Brazilian a little lost in a cold Norwegian spring. Yet the smile was still there and your infectious enthusiasm that will stay with me always got hold of me then. I'll miss you, Déo.

My heart goes out to your family, your wife and your two little girls. May they find comfort and love, and may you rest in peace.

Geir Baekholt Feb 11, 2011 03:46 PM

You will be missed, Dorneles.

Nate Aune Feb 11, 2011 07:01 PM

The last time I saw Dorneles was at the FISL conference in Brazil. He had booked a hotel for us, and as it turns out the room number was 404 - the room that cannot be found! I got to meet his wife Flaviane and two beautiful daughters Helen and Ingrid. They took me out for all-you-can eat sushi on my first night in Brazil, and oh did we ever stuff ourselves. It was my first time having chocolate sushi - strange concept but quite tasty. Dorneles was such a fun guy to hang out with - always smiling and friendly. I was amazed at how he could immediately establish rapport with anyone who he met. He would strike up conversations with the cab drivers and while I couldn't understand what they were saying in Portuguese, I knew that it was an engaging conversation.

Another memory I have of Dorneles is sandsurfing in Florianapolis after Python Brasil. We stopped by the side of the road, rented a few surfboards and climbed up a sanddune and spent all afternoon there sliding down the giant hill. Dorneles wore fancy brown dress shoes, but that didn't stop him from trekking all over the dunes. http://www.flickr.com/[…]/ (video of Dorneles sandsurfing)

I will always remember Dorneles as being a good friend, wonderful human being and an exceptional programmer. He is someone I admire and respect and I'll miss him dearly. I wanted to share some photos and videos of the last two times I hung out with Dorneles in Brazil. http://bit.ly/dorneles (Flickr) and http://on.fb.me/nosleepforyou (Facebook)

Roberto Allende Feb 12, 2011 04:08 AM

The first time i met Deo, he won the Arena Contest at Fisl. I remember the contest was very hard because there were really brilliant people competing and also you weren't able to choose your team mates. That episode was very inspirational for me, 'he won, working with someone who perhaps didn't meet before. And he was coding with Python'. The next thought was, 'when i grow up, i want to be like this guy'.

Even if I had the chance to meet him more than once, i could count with my hand's fingers the times we met, however, the desire to be brilliant like him, as a professional, as a human being, never goes away. More i knew him, more I respected, learned and appreciated him.

Deo was a remarkable person, it's going to be very hard to be in Brazil again and not finding him.

Go in peace Deo and count with me for the sprint when my times comes too.

Roberto Allende

Suresh V Feb 12, 2011 11:36 AM

Thank you for taking the time to patiently answer my queries, even the braindead noob ones.

Erico Andrei Feb 13, 2011 10:00 PM

So much have been said and written about Dorneles since it all happened last Thursday (So much have happened since last Thursday...)

Dorneles will be missed, but I'm glad I had the chance to have him as a friend.

Déo, be sure we will remember your achievements, your amazing appetite, your joy, your passion for soccer, your travel tricks and your standard "42-hour workday" :-)

And of course, we will remember you as an example of how good a human being can be.

So long!