He was excited and proud of his book, the much awaited Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration, written with Ryan J. Faas, and published by O'Reilly last year. And we were excited to celebrate with him at WWDC 2005. Here is Bartosh (left) with Doug Willen (right) at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco. Many consider it the bible for Mac OS X Server implementation and are greatly disappointed that the Tiger version was canceled.

Bartosh and Willen at WWDC 2005

His efforts to support people in their work was tireless and his push to get others to speak up, report bugs and be heard was relentless. This is no secret – he was present on many lists, and he worked and taught in many venues. No matter where he traveled, he was present through his correspondence. His iChat status let you know where he was traveling each day.

His positions were based on his beliefs. He would ardently defend or challenge Apple depending on the issue involved. He would ask the hard questions in order to push for better products and features for people in the trenches.

But when we talk of how we remember him, what sticks out in our minds are the crazy stories. The stolen rental car or convincing the limo driver to go on a midnight run to In-n-Out Burger in Las Vegas. We were often slack-jawed listening to him. But always amused, genuinely entertained.

He enjoyed company and would ask, "Who wants to go to the best Japanese restaurant around here? Drinks are on me!" Or post to the list "I'll be in London the week of the 25th, who wants to get together?" At BJ's in Cupertino, they named a drink after him, "the Bartosh".

We will miss Michael's warmth, brilliance and mirth.

If you are interested in donating to the Michael Bartosh Scholarship Fund to help pay for the travel and expenses to bring a University/College age Network Engineering Student to Macworld to attend the MacIT Conference, please visit the Michael Bartosh Scholarship page: http://www.macworldexpo.com/michaelbartoshmemorialscholarship