We are sad to announce that last week, Bradley McLean passed away due to unforeseen health complications.
Brad joined the project a little less than a year ago. Like many contributors, he started with small patches here and there. Building on these early contributions, Brad worked his way up to tackle one of the most serious challenges in the history of the project: porting and revamping toponaming fixes developed by RealThunder.
He was a good soul, he left the world too soon, and we will miss him dearly.
Chris Hennes: “The best part of working with Brad is that he understood that an Open Source project is as much about people as it is about software. I worked with him nearly every day for the last year, and his compassion and understanding of the human aspect of the project was as valuable as his tremendous contributions of code”.
Pesc0: “I truly admire the insane talent Brad had. He joined the project in a moment when we were stuck, and effortlessly picked right up as if he had been working on it since the beginning. He then carried most of the toponaming effort until completion, and we wouldn’t be where we are today if it had not been for him. Most of all I enjoyed his light-hearted spirit and every conversation we had about any topic we were passionate about”.
Brad Collette: “I had the chance to meet him at the FreeCAD 2024 North American Meetup in Springfield and found him to be a brilliant guy. More importantly, he was a truly decent human who I enjoyed getting to know. This is a huge loss for the community”.
9 responses to “RIP Bradley “bgbsww” McLean”
Bradley, we’re going to miss you. I wish your family and loved once a lot of strenght! Thank you very much for what you’ve done for the FreeCAD project. You’re a big part of the 1.0 release.
A horrible loss; these things are never easy. We never knew Bradley, but we interface with the fruits of his selfless labor every day. Our company has come a long way thanks to FreeCAD. It was once said that we should never be saddened by the loss of amazing people, but should have reverent pride that such people lived.
To the McLean family. Bradley’s impacy & legacy will live on, and will never be forgotten. Take comfort that he is with the good man upstairs, watching down on us all. You will reunite with him in time. We love you all, and we are so sorry. God Bless.
My condolences and my best wishes for his family.
So sorry to hear this
That is such sad news, My condolences
I am so glad I had a chance to meet him in Springfield. I miss the opportunity to be a good friend with him.
Can we dedicate the 1.0 release to him? I feel like it would be an appropriate gesture, given how much he did for the community.
It looks like there will be some kind of dedication, but I don’t think the team has already decided on implementation details.
October 9:
bgbsww fixed a TNP issue where adding a chamfer to the sketch of one of the bodies connected with a joint would break the assembly.
And he is still contributing to this effort.
Condolences to the family. His legacy will continue on with his contributions to FreeCAD and they will affect millions of people.