Some sad news - Wikimedia-l

20 Nov 2013

User:Jackson Peebles is no longer with us, he passed away in late
October. Jackson was a Western Michigan University Honors student
studying behavioral science and biology. He worked as an ice hockey
referreee and volunteered with the Red Cross. His Wikipedia efforts
focused on counter-vandalism and adoption, "greeting new users,
encouraging civility, and [obsessively] reviewing recent changes".

Jackson was a Teahouse host, an instructor in the Education Program,
and the lead on a Video Tutorials Project through the WMF. User:Go
Phightins! originaly adopted Jackson but he went on to run his own
adoption school and facilitated a Western Michigan University course
himself. Among his userboxes he said, "This user is not a Wikipedia
administrator but would like to be one someday."

Jackson was born in 1992 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He graduated Mattawan
High School and was Senior Class President there. At Western Michigan
University, he was a 2011 Medallion Scholar. He worked at the Waldo
Library at the reference desk and volunteered for the National
Alliance for Mental Illness. He was one of three students in the
nation invited to represent the US at the International Red Cross and
Red Crescent’s Global Youth Conference in Vienna in 2012.

Jackson had recently proposed a WMF Individual Engagment Grant called
Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship. "I think this project is incredibly
important and should be pursued," User:EpochFail wrote in an
endorsement. The grant scored highly and looked likely to be funded.
"A very interesting concept...may become a 'keystone piece' in the new
editor onboarding process." wrote one IEG committee member. Another
wrote, "Taking a 'Teahouse approach' in building sustained motivation
and preventing editor dropouts is a wonderful opportunity to develop a
true mentor-mentee support system that would increase the activity of
new contributors." Finally, "Proposers are highly qualified and driven
mentors with a useful background in teaching new editors and
understanding the learning process."

He was excitedly planning a trip to Australia in the coming weeks.

On Wikipedia, Jackson earned barnstars in Mentorship, Random Acts of
Kindness and Resilience. Friends and teachers glowingly recalled his
sense of humor and his hard work ethic.

His last edit to our site was on October 21 2013, the day he died.
Jackson welcomed an i.p. editor to Wikipedia: "Thank you for your
contributions, such as the one you made to Nikah mut‘ah. I hope you
like the place and decide to stay."

Please leave remembrances and condolences at
http://enwp.org/User_talk:Jackson_Peebes. We'll try and contact the
family and share your thoughts with them. You can read more
reflections on Jackson's amazing life there. Donations to the
Kalamazoo NAMI chapter would have made Jackson very happy and are the
family's wish.

--Ocaasi14:26, 20 November 2013 (UTC)