Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/2017

Austin Hair ()
Austin Hair (died 12 December 2017) was a freelance programmer and Wikipedian from Leiden. He was born and spent his early life in Los Angeles, before his family moved to Dallas, Texas. Austin moved to the Netherlands and lived the last several years in Leiden.

Austin's first edit was on May 13, 2004. He created 25 Wikipedia articles and contributed to a few hundred more, but his largest contribution was behind the scenes to a wide variety of Wikimedia projects, including helping run the first Wikimania conference in Frankfurt, Germany in 2005. He went on to assist with the technical and on-site operation of Wikimania 2006 (Cambridge, USA), Wikimania 2007 (Taipei), Wikimania 2008 (Alexandria, Egypt), and Wikimania 2010 (Gdansk, Poland). He was also involved in the very first Wikimedia Foundation fundraising committee, and was a member of the first Chapters Committee, which later was renamed to the Affiliations Committee. He served on that committee from 2006 to 2012 and served as its chair, and was involved in the movement roles project, which sought to clarify the relationships between chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation. He briefly joined the Wikimedia Nederlands chapter board in 2011. He was also an early administrator for the Wikimedia IRC channels, and served as a long-term administrator of the Wikimedia-l mailing list.

Austin had hundreds of friends among Wikimedians around the world, who will remember his kindness, thoughtfulness, willingness to listen, eagerness to talk about obscure aspects of international law, and quickness to make a joke. He was more often behind the scenes than front-and-center, but he was integral to our global community. He will be greatly missed. Memorial page on Meta.

Márta Pataki ()
Márta Pataki (1943–2017) was a teacher, librarian, cultural historian and Wikipedian from Szeged, Hungary. She was born in Szentes, on January 1, 1943. After finishing high school in her hometown, she attended the University of Szeged and the University of Budapest, and obtained a PhD in history of journalism. She spent over 40 years working as a teacher and librarian, and led the newspaper and journals section of the library of the University of Szeged for over twenty years.

She retired in early 2007 and from then on, dedicated her time and energy to improving the Hungarian Wikipedia. Her first edit was on March 4, 2007, her last on October 23, 2017. During her ten years as an editor she contributed to countless articles on such various subjects as literature, history, psychology and Transylvanian Hungarian culture. In March 2008 she created the ten millionth article on all Wikipedias, a biography of miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard on Hungarian Wikipedia. Since May 2013, she has continuously been one of the top 3 most active Hungarian Wikipedians. She was a loved and respected member of the Hungarian Wikipedia community.

Photos and interview with her (in Hungarian)

Chris Sherwin ()


Chris Sherwin (1962–2017) was born in Bradford, England, but during his formative years, he moved to Australia where he received his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Veterinary Biology from Murdoch University in Perth. He returned to England in 1990, and joined a research group at the University of Bristol Veterinary School where he initially focused on broiler chickens, and later on the welfare and behavior of turkeys where he made significant contributions. He also did a series of studies on laboratory mice, including theoretical issues and techniques. Chris retired in 2012 but continued to publish until 2013. He advocated for the welfare of animals and helped in the development of ethical guidelines as a member and former chair of the Animal Ethics Committee of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE). His colleague, Mike Mendl, authored a tribute to him that was published on 16 August 2017 in the University of Bristol News.

As a Wikipedian, DrChrissy generously contributed to articles about animal welfare and behaviour. His first edit was made on 4 March 2011, and his last on 29 May 2017. He created 54 WP articles, and contributed to many more. He was an excellent collaborator, witty, considerate and respectful of others. He was an asset to the WP community, was loved and respected by many, and will be greatly missed.

Lucy Ozarin
Lucy Ozarin (1914–2017) was a psychiatrist who served in the United States Navy. She was one of the first women psychiatrists commissioned in the Navy, and she was one of seven female Navy psychiatrists who served during World War II. During her late nineties, Ozarin wrote over fifty biographies of notable psychiatrists on Wikipedia.

Beth MacDonald ()
Beth MacDonald, a lay expert in circadian rhythms and sleep disorders, died in 2017. In addition to her major contributions to Wikipedia, some of which were recognized in an academic paper on how Wikipedia editors maintain medicine-related articles, she was a founder of the Circadian Sleep Disorders Network.

Mark Hurd ()
Mark Hurd was an Australian IT professional who was a co-founder of MGM Wireless, of which he also served as director and chief technology officer. He died in 2017. He originally created his Wikipedia account in 2003 and continued to edit well into the year of his death.

Nick Dupree ()


Nick Dupree was a disability rights advocate from Mobile, Alabama. He started Nick's Crusade, an effort to convince the state of Alabama to extend in-home services for Alabamians with disabilities who are over the age of 21. He began editing Wikipedia in 2005, and had an interest in articles on "Chinese history, the History of Asia in general, and American history (including Latin America)".