Legend

Question

† Theunis de Jong (1966–2020)

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 5, 2020
52 replies
21617 views

Better known under his nickname “Jongware”, our brilliant and famous colleague Theunis de Jong died on November 28 at the age of 54.

Everyone in this forum—and especially the older generation I belong to—will surely understand what this death means to the InDesign community. I invite the Adobe team, moderators, persons in charge… to create a dedicated tribute page. As Theunis had many many friends here (Peter, Uwe, Gregor… well! I won't mention you all, buddies!), it would be really attentive to give them a space of collective memory.

I have posted a more personal—and written—tribute on my website (I would be very touched if you read it, of course). It contains a quote that I think justified to share here with you anyway. A month ago, as he knew his days were numbered, Theunis wrote to me:

“I am really happy to have been a member of that community for so many, many years, and having been able to teach people the occasional tidbits about design, layout, and typography, InDesign in general and scripting specifically.” —Theunis de Jong, Oct. 7, 2020.

Take care,

Marc Autret

https://www.indiscripts.com/pages/theunis

Scripting

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Jean loup Fusz

Community Expert

Very sad to learn of his death. As for many InDesign users, JongWare's work has introduced me to InDesign scripting.
I use his scripts and his HTML version of the JavaScript documentation almost daily.
His death is a sad loss to the InDesign community.
My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

Loic.Aigon

Legend

That's sad news. A crual reminder that we are only visiting this earth for a short among of time and Theunis would have deserved to stay with us much longer.

As many of us, I owe Jongware so much. The HTML file have been part of my daily work for so long that I can even browse files in a blink. Without it, scripting would have been a harder road.

I only had digital exhanges with Theunis and there were only a few but I can say he was a man with a sharp mind and total humility and kindness. I cannot imagine how sad his relatives and close friends can be at the moment but all my thoughts to them.

RIP Theunis, you were really inspiring.

A

Argonaut777

Participant

That's very sad news indeed.

I rarely post in these forums but, I was honoured when he commented on one of my queries many years ago and explained the nitty gritty of the GREP issue that I had had with one of my own GREP styles.

It was his example that opened up the possiblities of the use of scripts and GREP to me.

His passing is great loss to the Design community.

RIP Jongware

Keith_Gilbert

Inspiring

Thank you for letting the community know and for your beautiful tribute Marc. Theunis was a wonderful example of someone who tirelessly and selflessly gave to the community, again and again over so many years. We all have benefitted in so many ways from his inquisitiveness, brilliance, and generosity.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Thank you Marc for letting us know. And for your kind words.

I'm shocked! Spent my weekend totally offline, and now this sad news.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Trevor:

Legend

I haven't checked into the forum in a long time and would have missed this post if Harbs wouldn't have posted on slack but after seeing it I must comment.

Theunis helped me and countless others out on many occasions and will be missed by the community here and more so by his family.

The treads between Jongware, Marc, Uwe, Peter, others, and myself were quite inspiring each demonstrating their own style and JW certainly had some of that.

Harbs.

Legend

Oh. That's really sad!

He was a very valued member of the community and I learned a tremendous amount from him.

I'm not sure how many folks remember, but this is the second Theunis de Jong our community has lost. Both were brilliant people.

Peter Kahrel

Community Expert

@Harbs. The first de Jong you're thinking of was Teus, not Theunis.

Harbs.

Legend

It's possible I remember wrong, but I thought his given name was Theunis as well. IIRC, they were related. Either way, very sad news. 😞

A

Asuvath

Known Participant

May his soul rest in peace.

Colette WIlson

Known Participant

RIP Jongware!

He will be sadly missed, his bio is a fitting tribute to someone who has followed a path of discovery, always exploring and always willing to offer help!

LeonardoAgosti

Known Participant

It's an incredible loss at such a still young age..
As most of the InDesign people active around the world we never met in person, but I'll, and I can probably say also we'll all miss him and his great advices..

Sincere condolences to the family and everyone who knew him.

Geоrge

Legend

RIP. Пусть земля ему будет пухом.

Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner

O

Olav Kvern

Participating Frequently

This is a great loss. Thank you, Marc Autret, for your beautiful obituary.

Sincerely,

Ole

jane-e

Community Expert

I'm so, so sorry to hear this sad news about Theunis, aka @Jongware . He was always willing to share his vast knowledge and will be missed by all of us in the InDesign community.

~ Jane

Janus Bahs Jacquet

Inspiring

This is shocking and heartbreaking. Unbelievably sad.

My first interactions with Theunis were on the Typophile forums, about fifteen years ago, before I even started to seriously use InDesign. I think my introduction to him was a conversation about Korean compounds. When I started using InDesign more and doing more book layouts and eventually joined the forums here, I soon noticed the breadth and depth of his knowledge – though it was some time until I realised he was the same person I knew from Typophile (he was Theunis there and Jongware here, if memory serves). Every interaction I had with him since then taught me something new, always in his patient, friendly fashion.

I shall miss Theunis. Although it seems this had been some time coming for him, I hope he went peacefully and painlessly.

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