Call me an hyper-sensitive fool, but it takes me very little to me to get fond of people.
Ilya Valentinovich Segalovich (Илья́ Валенти́нович Сегало́вич) was co-founder and CTO of Yandex, the giant Russian search engine.
In many western countries very few people knew about him, but I did and admired him. He was like what Sergey Brin is in Google.
He passed away yesterday, after a complication of a stomach cancer treatment.
He was only 49.
Leaves a wife and an enlarged family with lots of adopted children.
He was a notorious philanthropist, founding many charities, his wife's Maria's Children included.
Funny how we get fond of our modern idols, people we don't know in person... but there's a little more.
One week before deceasing, he did me a great favor:
A retweet from Ilya Segalovich. You can't image my surprise.
A retweet. It might seem little and he probably didn't spend much time thinking about it, but the simple fact he actually read my article surprised me, and his retweet had a tangible impact on this tiny web site:
An anomalous peak of visits (and new users) from Russia and Ukraine, from Twitter
I didn't know he was ill. I find surprising how devoted he should have been to his job, other than all his other interests, to find the time for a simple tweet.
My most sincerest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to his family, friends and beloved ones.