RIP David Hunt, AKA Movieman

[David Hodgkins]

As much as I wanted to visit Factory Five's Open House this year, the main reason why I flew from California to Boston was to visit a dear forum friend David Hunt, AKA Movieman. You see, David was one of those guys who really wanted to build his own Type 65 coupe. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to fulfill his wish. He had procrastinated for a decade before finally going in to get his first colonoscopy at 60+ and was given the bad news that he was already at stage 4 cancer. Regardless of his fate, he was very active on the forum and he and I had spoken on the phone many times as a result of our mutual love of Factory Five and these *****en' race cars we build.

I arrived in southern New Hampshire on Thursday June 4th with one purpose: meet a good friend for the first time / last time. It was no secret that he was going to die, and had resigned himself to his fate. He still stayed active on Facebook and computer forums that he was an administrator on and was famous in the tech community for his ability to get incredible throughput out of the latest chip designs. He consulted for Intel and AMD and the two tech giants regularly sent him their very, very latest beta designs for him to test. He was a very smart man!

His FFR dream never came to fruition, but he just LOVED to see these cars we have built and talk about them. What a guy. We had several long conversations about various topics, including his souped-up sleeper Capri he had in the 70's.

During my visit with him he told me stories of his life, paid me a ton of compliments I didn't deserve, and the 5 hours we had together just flew by. I knew when I was leaving that I'd never get another chance to see him again, and was very emotional as I said goodbye. I did get one last chance to do him a solid by sitting down with Dave Smith after everyone had left from the Open House and making a call to David so that they could meet. That phone call lasted over an hour and again was very emotional by the time it ended. I'm glad I was able to do one little favor for my new life-long friend.

I'm so sad right now! If he had just seen a doctor and not been embarrassed about the procedure he might still be here today. But to his credit he took full responsibility for his delay and the path that decision led him on.

David, Rest In Peace my brother! Until we meet again...

[carlewms]

A wonderful tribute ... as have often been said its not the cars ... its the people.

David you are a good man who did a very nice thing for David H.

Thanks,

Carl

[edwardb]

Great story, amazing tribute, and classy all around. Thanks for posting. Sorry for your loss. Sadly, I could tell a similar story about a coworker we lost a couple months ago. Do the tests people.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Nice words and an admirable gesture of friendship on your part David. I remember "Movieman" from the forum although I just assumed that his absence was due to changing interests rather than health issues. Condolences to his friends and family.

Jeff

[Kalstar]

Oh man, he was such a good guy. I spoke with him via this forum many times and a few times by phone. So sorry to hear of his passing. What a smart witted human this man was. God speed buddy.

[ehansen007]

To David! Here here. Great tribute. Sounds like he lived a very important and fulfilling life. Why then would he want the frustration of building a coupe?

[skullandbones]

Definitely agree with the cancer screening for colon cancer. It's unfortunate that some are uncomfortable with the procedure. My father had colon cancer which spread to his lungs so it's not something to be avoided no matter how distasteful it may seem. I'm sorry "movieman" didn't get to enjoy his FFR dream. But I do think he got a lot of satisfaction from the forum participation and associations like you, Dave. Nice tribute.

WEK.

[David Hodgkins]

Susan Mercer, David's sister posted this obituary to Facebook, which I'm copying here, unedited. The tributes flowing into his facebook page are incredible. He was truely a piller of the grid computing world and a mentor to many, many bright minds...

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This is Dave's obituary. I really hope it does him justice. Thank you to Ben Pelletier for the photo and to both Ben and Bill Harmon for their assistance with the "technical" details. wink emoticon

David D. Hunt, 63
February 5, 1952 – July 28, 2015

David Donald Hunt of Litchfield, NH, formerly of Lynn, Salem and Beverly, MA passed on July 28th after a long and courageous battle with prostate cancer.

David leaves two daughters, Elizabeth Staley of Topsfield, MA and Alison Hunt of Beverly, MA. David was predeceased by his father, Donald A. Hunt of Litchfield, NH. He leaves his mother A. Joanne (Irving) Hunt also of Litchfield, NH, sisters Deborah Voci of Lynn, MA, Susan Mercier and Cynthia Hunt, both of Leominster, MA, Lisa Ryan of Peabody, MA and one brother, Peter Hunt of Lynn, MA. David also leaves his beloved aunt, M. Claire (Irving) Spielberg of Leesburg, FL as well as two grandchildren, many nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and loving friends from all over the world.

David dedicated the past 15 years to caring for his mother.

Some of David’s favorite memories were of fishing with his close friends on Big Bear Lake in La Tuque, Quebec Canada.

His hobbies included designing and building high speed computers, and at one time he was ranked number one in the world for building the world’s fastest computer having two CPU’s (dual central processing units).

David also tested and reviewed computer components for manufacturers such as Intel, Supermicro, and AMD. Those reviews appeared on the XtremeSystems forum, where Dave was a well-respected moderator known as “Movieman”.

Dave joined the Majestic-12 Distributed Search Computing project in 2006. Dave quickly established himself as one of the top web crawlers and since joining the project, he had crawled over 31 billion web pages. In addition to his contributions to the project, Dave also made an impact as a human being and great friend who was always happy to post something positive.

In 2011 David contributed to AMD's Guinness World Record achievement of the Highest Clock Frequency of a Silicon Processor, 8429.38 MHz, achieved on 31 August, 2011 at AMD Headquarters, Austin TX. David also contributed his time and computer resources to NASA’s SETI project and to breast cancer research via IBM’s World Community Grid research project “Mapping Cancer Markers”. A cure for breast cancer was a goal near and dear to Dave’s heart, in hopes that his daughters and future generations of women may not suffer with this terrible disease.

In recent months Dave found much joy in spending time with friends and family and giving away his possessions to those the thought would enjoy them most. He kept saying how happy it made him to put a smile on someone’s face. Dave also became a very vocal advocate for prostate screening, which he knew would very likely have prevented his own suffering had he done it as doctors recommend. David would want every person reading this to learn from his experience and be sure and have appropriate cancer screenings done as instructed by their doctor. A website to promote cancer screening awareness has been started in David’s honor. www.DDHunt.org

Private services will be held.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your favorite charity or donating some of your time to a cancer patient. Either of these would put a smile on Dave’s face.

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Here's a sample of the type of machines David Built and tested:

[vnmsss]

Our Movieman is gone.........July 28 was indeed a very sad day for all of us.

I was blessed to meet David in person, and graced to be in his presence less than one month ago. He was so encouraging to me in my racing career, and in our Thunder Valley Racing team's development of the Factory Five Racing Coupe in our pursuit of the endurance racing championship.

In day to day terms, I knew very little about David. Our homes were on opposite sides of the country: His in New Hampshire, and mine in Southern California. I worked in the field of education, and he in the oh-so-technical computer world. We met through the forums and our common love of the Coupes. To say David was a computer genius would be a severe understatement. The most powerful and technologically advanced silicon-based companies in the world relied on David to test their products, and to not only critique them, but his suggested improvements were readily adopted.

David had another interest though, and that was in the legendary Daytona Coupes. He was in the early stages of planning his Coupe build when we connected through the forums, and like David Hodgkins, I met David while on my trip to the Factory Five Open House last month. David and I initially connected through the Factory Five Forum some five years ago, and then on Facebook within the last couple of years. We connected about the same time my husband Andy was diagnosed with cancer, and David's many words of encouragement in our medical battle, as well as his endless cheerleading for our race team as we persevered through those very difficult times, truly touched my heart and meant the world to me at the time (and still does). We sadly lost our Andy to brain cancer, and in the weeks and months that followed, David would "check in" on me from time to time, with private messages on the forum or more recently through Facebook messaging.

His kindness and uncanny ability to somehow just "know" the right time to reach out was simply phenomenal. Here was a person I had never met, reaching out to me in a way that transcended the thousands of miles that separated us. He was one of the most perceptive people I've ever known. In the fall of last year, when we all learned that David was facing serious health issues, I was completely heart broken. Along with his many friends, we all closely followed his diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis for the future. We were all pulling for him, but as he told me himself, his cancer was discovered in an advanced stage, and there was little to be done.

David messaged me in February of this year, telling me he would very much enjoy our having the chance to visit in person if I ever found myself in the Boston/Southern New Hampshire area. I knew his cancer was progressing quickly, and I could not have been more honored to make that trip, nor more grateful to have had the opportunity to meet David, and come to know/understand his being. In the big scheme of life, we were kindred spirits. He was passionate about life, and spoke truthfully, and without quarter, when it came to things of great import to him. I learned much from him about myself, which I will carry forward in my life with a renewed appreciation of friendship, family, and the true gifts that a simple life bestows upon us each and every day. He was a truly special person, and when I left his home, a piece of my heart stayed there with him, and I will forever carry a piece of his heart with me. May God bless you David Hunt. You made a difference during your time here on this earth, and the world is indeed a lesser place without you in it. Rest in Peace my friend. Karen

[vnmsss]

.....and yes, our Movieman was a computer genius:

[KDubU]

I am very to read this. Never met David but know all too well what cancer robs of us.

[David Hodgkins]

Today is David's Birthday. He would have been just 62.

In his memory I implore all you "too busy for a Doctor" types to go out and get tested! The life you save will be your own, but the pain you save will cover many souls!

MAKE AND APPOINTMENT, AND GET TESTED!

I miss you my brother, RIP.

[frankeeski]

I thought I had posted on this thread when we lost David. I was one of the few in this community, along with Hodgkins and Karen, to have met David in person. In talking with David and later to his sister through facebook, it was hard to imagine David as a big, strong, manly man. Cancer had reduced him to a frail, tiny man that could hardly make a trip to the bathroom only 20 steps away from his easy chair. This in and of itself was enough to tell me, that regular screenings once passing 40 years old is an absolute must. David you see was a working man. Don't get me wrong, he was also a computer genius but he worked for a living many years in a blue collar job. He was just like many of us. He worked his *** off to, at some point in his life, build one of the Factory Five cars that many of us dreamed of at one point as well. David's life was sadly cut very short. It was my honor to have met him, he had experience well beyond his years, I, as well as Karen and Hodgkins wish he could have achieved his dream of both building and owning a Factory Five Type 65 Coupe. I had a scare 9 years ago and subsequently get screened every year, sometimes more if complications arise. Please don't take the above warning from Hodgkins lightly. Hodgkins and I are both pretty big guys and I think we sometimes think we are invincible because of our size. But seeing pictures of David Hunt his sister posted on facebook after his passing really hit home for me. David Hunt was a big guy too, at the end he was almost 100 lbs. Get tested....... Often.

Quoting David before his passing he said "If there is one life saved from my message"

[Kalstar]

What an awesome tribute! I just read the thread again in it's entirety. Only thing I would like to add is... tell those you love how much you love them. You don't know when or if you will get the chance again. Dave was truly a remarkable man, funny as they come too. Very moving posts to an honorable man.

[longislandwrx]

What a great tribute and a solemn and empowering reminder that good, bad, or indifferent we are all masters of our own destiny.

Godspeed Movieman, I think we would have got along quite nicely. Keep doing what you love.