Today, PgUS joins the entire PostgreSQL community in mourning the death of Simon Riggs on March 26, 2024.
Simon’s contributions to the project and community were significant, both in terms of technical contributions and personal involvement.
Important PostgreSQL features, such as point in time recovery, hot standby, and synchronous replication, are directly due to Simon’s work on the project.
Simon was generous with his time and talents, mentoring and guiding countless individuals over the years, many of whom have become active community participants and contributors themselves.
His success with 2ndQuadrant, which he started as a solo founder and grew to an international company with offices in multiple cities, inspired others to run businesses related to PostgreSQL.
Simon spoke at major PostgreSQL conferences, including many PgUS events, as well as several PgDay events. His presentations were entertaining, as well as educational. He could always be found in the hallway after, answering further questions and engaging in earnest discussions with the attendees. We appreciate his contributions to our events and his camaraderie with our members.
Much of the PostgreSQL code and community are at the advanced levels they are today because of Simon’s work and participation, and we mourn the loss of our friend and colleague.
PgUS sends condolences to his wife, Karen, to Simon’s extended family, and to all in the PostgreSQL and Open Source communities who knew and worked with Simon.