Last Friday, we were greeted by the most terrible news imaginable – made even more terrible by the fact that it was completely unexpected. Pete Wilson, a great friend and benefactor of The Geek Beat (and without whom, we probably wouldn’t be here), died following a massive heart attack during hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital.

I have been a regular guest of Pete’s news and talk show, The Pete Wilson Show, since my days as Editor-in-Chief of Macworld. When I left Macworld in 2001, Pete was one of the few members of the media who stayed in touch, still inviting me on his show from time-to-time to do tech commentary. Only now, instead of just Mac stuff, Pete gave me a forum to talk about all manner of technology. As a journalist focused exclusively on the Mac for the previous 20 years, this was an amazing opportunity to expand my scope and incredibly generous of Pete to make possible.

It was Pete who encouraged me to start The Geek Beat, when our ad hoc sessions evolved into quarterly events with me writing buyer’s guides on all manner of stuff and then discussing them on the air with Pete. And it was Pete’s show, more than anything else, that was responsible for driving that all-important initial traffic to our site. Pete got nothing out of this. In fact, at first, I was at something of a loss to explain this unprecedented act of generosity. But as I got to know Pete better, I realized that was just who Pete was – a good and generous man.

Of course radio was just a small part of Pete’s world. And I will leave it to others more qualified to eulogize his considerable achievements. However, I believe it’s how someone handles the small things in life that is the best measure of their worth. And based on that measure, Pete was a very worthy man, indeed.

We will miss you, Pete. We are all diminished by your absence.

Pete’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to your favorite charity in his name.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 am and is filed under HOME, KGO RADIO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.