Chuck(G), RIP

[Rick Denney]

Word comes to me (very slowly) that Chuck Guzis passed away last summer. I can find no obituary, but I did find news on several vintage computer forums where he was still active. Based on that, I logged back in at the old place to see if he had been around. He had posted several times on Tubenet in the fall of 2024, selling stuff, and in January '25 said he was still fighting cancer (myxoid chondrosarcoma) and by that time was giving away a bunch of his old stock of parts. He had a number of surgeries and apparently suffered a lot in his last year. The cancer finally got him in July, but I don't know the exact date--in late July his nephew was trying to solicit help disposing of his vintage computer equipment.

Prior to those posts, his most recent activity predated the formation of this forum, so there's a good chance he didn't know anything about it.

Chuck was fixture on the old Tubenet, from the pre-PHPBB days, and a bastion of simple good sense. Joe once described him as "knowing a lot about a lot of things" and that was an understatement. He had invented some clever ways to recover data from hard disks and had become a (well-compensated) leader in data forensics as a result. That had brought him a comfortable life in Eugene, though I don't think he ever really stopped working. He was a fixture on vintage computer forums, and knew the ins and outs of data storage on just about every old operating system known to Man and kept the equipment and software necessary to retrieve that data. He had a basement that was about twice the size of his house, or so it looked to me, and it was chock full of vintage computer gear.

I bought my York Master from him in maybe 2001 after visiting him in Eugene to try it out. We kept in close touch for many years after that, but he drifted away from online tuba-related activity nearly 20 years ago now and I hadn't talked with him in a number of years. I wonder what happened to his Minnick-frankensteined Bb Keefer which did everything wrong but got everything right? The only possible condition, as he claimed, under which he would give that tuba up has now come to pass, sadly.

Dead at 75, RIP

Rick "hate to lose friends" Denney

[hrender]

I remember Chuck from the old board. He was someone whose opinions I appreciated. I found this in case some want to know about the non-tuba side of his life.

[the elephant]

Ah, man… I really liked Chuck back when he was a regular in the tuba world. I had some nice chats with him about repair work, old computers, and just general nonsense. He was a good man.

Rest in peace, Chuck. You will be missed.

[bort2.0]

I found this. Really sorry to know he endured such a difficult time.

https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threa ... g.1253843/

I remember Chuck(G) as a name that would come up often, and was worth reading. RIP.

[dp]

Oh my. 25 years ago Chuck sent me a couple of BQ arrangements of the "Der Hölle Rache" aria from Magic Flute. Sad now. Rest in Peace, Chuck.