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Jim was a true Mac enthusiast and he was always willing to lend a hand. One day my son brought home an old Mac SE/30. It would power up and looked like it was somewhat functional, but would not boot. I really had no knowledge of this vintage Mac, but I knew just the guy who did. I called Jim and he was more than happy to come over and take a look at it. Well, it turned out that the box was pretty well cannibalized. It had no hard drive, no memory, and it looked like the floppy drive was defective, too. I had a hard drive and some 1 meg SIMMs to put in it, but there was no bracket to mount the drive. Jim said that he thought he may have a bracket and suggested that he could take the whole thing with him and work on it back home. Well about 3 days later he called and said he was coming over with the SE/30. Of course it was fully functional. He found a bracket to mount the drive, put in the memory and he even replaced the defective floppy disk with one he had. And he didn’t want a dime for anything. That was Jim. I will not forget Jim for that. Not just because he was so generous, but because he sowed a seed into my life which I’m trying to carry on. And that’s to help other people in need with our own knowledge and expertise, if we are able. I think that’s the spirit of the DACS organization of which Jim Menousek was the epitome, both as an educator and a friend. David Brown When I purchased my refurbished Power Mac, I brought the unit down to the MAC club last year and had a glitch with the system which Jim jumped right into to . . . getting right to the inside workings and locating the trouble in record time. After fixing the problem, he then explained to me in detail as to how he went about fixing the unit and encouraged me to get to know my machine in a “friendly” manner and not to be afraid of the internal components. His style was also professional and kind. He will be missed. Joe Czarnik
Jim helped me with my 8000 person mailing list and all sorts of business applications! He was a very generous man with his time and talent and he had a very dry sense of humor. He had a lot of patience, even though he was so far ahead of most of us in the language of computers. I will always have a fond place in my heart for Jim. I placed him in my dedications on my new CD "Life is Love & Love is You." Sherry Winston Nothing special to say about Jim Menousek except that he was always ready to try to help. I do remember him bringing in disks with special little applications he found helpful, and I’m still using a couple of them. Even though I haven’t attended very much in the last year or so, I’ll miss the Mac interest group and especially Jim’s smiling face. Harlan Jessup He took the time to install a new hard drive on my old Performa, and add RAM to my wife’s laptop...you can say that! John Tenaglia I am the proud owner of Jim’s deMicrosofted attaché case. He was so proud, in his witty way, to show me what he had done. He removed a Microsoft IMMITATION leather patch and sewed a cloth Apple patch in its place. He and I had a friendly competitive edge to our friendship. If someone had a problem we would try to solve it quicker than the other. Also, if someone brought a show-and-tell gadget to the Macintosh SIG, we would both want to check it out first. What I enjoyed most with Jim, was when he and I began repairing and upgrading Macintosh Users’ computers at the Mac SIG. And if the grateful Macintosh owners offered us money, we strongly encouraged them to join DACS instead. It was our subversive way to save people from being subjugated to the only Macintosh place in town. Well, towards the end of his life, while visiting him regularly, I got to meet and know his son Andrew, with whom I remain in touch. I have met people who, though they embrace computers, stated they would not use email, the web or cell phones…but since have, as future folks will. Chris Salaz Of course, everyone will be telling stories of what a great guy Jim Menousek was; how he helped so many people with their problems with computers (and Life); how marvelous was his sense of humor (my puns were puny compared to his); how great was his contribution to his community and his family; and how special was his humanity. I was a multiple recipient of this humanity through his many generosities to me and to the user group. When I had to leave Danbury and give-up leadership of Dacs Mac SIG, Jim, knowing how sick he was, and how little good time was left to him, still agreed to shoulder shared responsibility for continuing the SIG. When Marc and I took our month-long tour of the USA, carrying the then-little-known GPS receiver, Jim loaned us a valuable Mac laptop to run the first Mac-based GPS mapping software. The experience was the basis for a dacs.doc article. I wanted to own that machine that had so well endured the rigors of that adventure, and haggled with Jim for years over a fair price. Just before his death, Jim made a gift to me of that laptop. It is now one of my most dearly cherished possessions. This summer it will be testing the latest version of that amazing mapping software (MacAPRS) while bolted to the tank of a motorcycle. I hope Jim will be looking after the safety of his Thursday’s Child, and of its grateful user. Thanks, Jim, for being a model of how to live Life with Love, grace, generosity, character, integrity and class. Robert Constantine |
One of the
things I will always remember about Jim was his dry wit. He would
point to my calculator watch and say “Hey, isn’t that
one of those ‘geek’ watches?” and he was pointing
to it with the hand that had his own ‘geek’ calculator
watch on it. That may seem stupid, but it cracked me up.
Jim was one of the most wonderful people
that I have ever met. He would come to my house whenever I called
him and spend hours with me, helping me learn the language of
computers.