From: http://www.piperrudnick.com/ On behalf of Frank Burch, Lee Miller and myself, I am very saddened to have to report some terrible news. Our partner Ron Plesser collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack on November 18th at Dulles Airport. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RIP: Ron Plesser Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 17:55:37 -0800 From: Ray Everett-Church <ray@private> To: <dave@private>, "Declan McCullagh" <declan@private> For your lists... Services will be held on Sunday at 2pm at Temple Sinai, 3100 Military Rd., NW, Washington, DC, (202) 363-6394. There is a brief blurb on his firm's website, http://www.piperrudnick.com. Ron was the way Washington is supposed to be... contentious, but kind; steadfast in opposition, but always gracious. This is a tremendous loss to the privacy policy community. Hopefully I'll see some of you at the service. I got the following message forwarded from a friend... Regards, -Ray -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [UserEmpowerment] Ronald Plesser: An Honored Colleague and Friend Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 13:00:54 -0500 From: Jerry Berman <jberman@private> To: ipwg@private, dpswg@private, supporters@private, UserEmpowerment@private CC: CSWG Others: ; Today is a very sad day for CDT. Our friend Ron Plesser passed away suddenly yesterday. Ron Plesser will be sorely missed as a friend and as a colleague. He will be remembered as someone who worked over the last 25 years to promote privacy and civil liberties values in the age of computer data bases and the revolutionary development of new communications technologies and the Internet. Going back to his work with the Privacy Protection Study Commission in the mid 1970's, Ron Plesser educated all of us about threats to privacy in the computer age but also the social value of new technologies in our life. He thus saw the need to find policy solutions that both recognized the value of computer technology in government and commerce but also established privacy and civil liberties protections for citizens and consumers . It is almost impossible to think of landmark privacy statutes over the last 25 years that could have been enacted without Ron Plesser's efforts to find workable solutions that balanced competing interests to make legislation possible. Statutes establishing privacy for cable subscriber information, email and cell phones, and video rental records all have his stamp. Plesser's legacy is not limited to privacy. He helped to craft the modern Freedom of Information Act and then to update it to give citizens access to electronic public information. Plesser was the expert at the table. He knew the law, the technology, the players, the threads that had to be weaved together to build consensus and make privacy and technology policy happen. We, who worked with him on technology policy and legislation respected him, loved him dearly, and will miss him beyond words. Services will be held on Sunday at Temple Sinai in DC on Military Road at 2:00pm and all his friends are invited. Jerry Berman President Center for Democracy and Technology _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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