Andrew Mager

I was horrified when I got a text message this morning from a friend telling me Eliot Kalmbach had passed away in a hiking accident. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that Eliot and a friend were hiking an off beat trail at Grand Teton National Park.

I remember Eliot as a genius, an explorer, a jokester, and an all around good guy. We took AP Calculus together at Downingtown High School. We also played trumpet together in the marching band, and traveled to Pasadena to perform in the Rose Parade in 2001. When I found out he was going to Princeton after high school, I knew he would make it big.

Most of my contact with Eliot had been through Facebook, where I would frequently check out his amazing pictures. I feel like he climbed every mountain known to man:

I felt a little worse when I heard about his passing because I was supposed to meet up with him a few weeks ago when he was visiting northern California for some business. Our timing was off, and we couldn’t meet up. I really really really wish I got to see him. He was up to some big things too:

“As for what I am up to, a couple of friends and I put together a business plan that won an incubator contest with Lightspeed Associates here in palo alto, so our programming team has been out here all summer testing things out and getting ready to launch our product (which is basically a service that delivers test preparation material for standarized tests, such as the SAT/ACTs, through sms platforms). Most of the time I have been working on this stuff remotely, because I had some business on the east coast, but felt that I should come out during the push towards launching the beta…”

Eliot was such a great friend, even though we hadn’t seen each other since high school. When tragedy struck at my university two years ago, Eliot reached out to me:

I will remember Eliot as an adventurer, advancer of technology, musician, and general enthusiast of life. He is survived by his parents, and two sisters Hilary and Whitney.

Here is a message from the family:

Relatives and friends are invited to Eliot’s Funeral Service, 10:00 am, Monday, September 28, 2009 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 7 St. Andrew’s Lane, Glenmoore, PA. Interment is private.
Visitation will be held from 9:00 am – 10:00 am, Monday, September 28, 2009 at the church.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to The Franklin Institute Science Museum, Development Office, 222 N. 20th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103; and/or Philmont Scout Ranch, 17 Deer Run Rd., Cimarron, NM 87714.

We would like any friends of Eliot who are coming in from a distance and staying overnight on Sunday in the area to **get in touch with us**. (Facebook (John Kalmbach), , or ).

Rewind two years and some change: April 5, 2007. I’m stuck in the Roanoke airport in Virginia. My Thursday night flight to San Francisco had to be pushed to morning. I was gonna be late for my interview at CNET the next day.

Rockstar human and HR person, Hilary Straw, called me every day trying to get me to come for an interview.

My flight landed and I rushed to downtown San Francisco to meet with my new boss and her boss. I was terrified, but really excited. I remember falling in love with San Francisco, as well as this new company. When I got a tour of the building, I was like, “Holy shit! They have video games here?!”

I immediately accepted the job when Arquay offered it to me. I had heard of CNET before, but my business division would be called BNET, the business version.

Since then, it’s been a pleasure walking up 2nd Street every day to come to work. It really doesn’t feel like work if you enjoy the people, the product, and the process of making new things.

Over the past two plus years, I have had the best job anyone could ask for right out of college. I have worked with amazing, talented, brilliant people. They have taught me more than I could learn in any classroom.

The memories will last forever.

Watching a smaller company merge into a larger one has been a fun experience too. But I will always call this place CNET.

I wanted to take a minute to inform you guys about what’s goin on with me, and also commemorate the people who have made my life great for the past few years.

I’ll never forget the first day, when Robert Balousek welcomed me to the company. He was my first friend, and he’s still a close friend.

This is John Potter, a true engineer, Republican, and dictat… leader. I actually got him to join the day I started.

Can’t forget Zander. He has moved up the ladder a lot, and been a strong face around here:

Neil Ashe has been transformed from CEO of CNET Networks to President of CBS Interactive. And I’ve seen his leadership evolve along the way. An awesome role model:

Marc Mendell is the creative director here, and it shows. He is responsible for the beautiful designs of BNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic, MoneyWatch, Smartplanet, and more. Him and I have worked on a ton of personal projects together, including the design of this blog. He has been an inspiration to me in many ways. I remember when his late grandfather was getting sick, he told me that I inspired him. He told me to always be curious, enthusiastic, and never stop learning.

Alexis Gallisá taught me how to make the accent in his name on a Mac, and plenty more.

Joel B. Sacks welcomed me to the company too. He was also a great bar hopper

Vinay Dixit is my best friend at CNET. He has been the most inspirational person in my life the past two years:

McLovin, AKA Ball-log, has been my brother here for the past two years. I love him dearly, even when he’s inappropriate.

Scott Parsons works magic, especially with Mootools. He has defined my HTML markup and CSS stylability. And he makes a killer Buckeye.

Neha was the spirit of CNET when I joined. She ruled the videos, and has taught me a lot about entrepreneurialism and passion. She is my star!

Selvin George has taught me LOADS of Javascript. Also, life lessons. He has taught me to take life slow, but don’t miss any opportunities.

Kenric rules the world. He will always take the time to help you understand something.

Josh writes the web. He has more puns than Oscar Wilde, and he will always goof you.

Moynihan makes me laugh, think, and dream harder.

Tom and Veronica are one of the reasons I first started to be interested in CNET.

I can’t sleep at night if I don’t listen to Buzz Out Loud.

Molly Wood is another story. She is absolutely wonderful, and I will miss her SOO much. She rants, raves, and rocks my socks off.

Rafe defines the word “authoritative”.

Natali gets me Loaded.

And Kara Tsuboi showed me how to be a professional TV personality.

Even though he never worked at CNET, I got to meet Merlin Mann here.

One time, the local CBS 5 guys called me to talk about how I hate voicemail.

Navarro Brooks is like my west coast mom:

And Leslie gives a good handshake:

Solis can really throw a ball:

And Erica can smile:

If you see William at the front desk, say what’s up to him for me:

People come and go, and you have to really experience every moment and cherish them or you will miss out. Jablonski taught me that:

I will really miss Christine and Katy:

And a special hot dog:

Sitting next to Carl Harris every day has been a blast. I got along well with him cuz he is from North Carolina and Atlanta:

One thing I will really miss is getting backstage access at CNET Redball.

I can’t forget Arquay. Probably the toughest boss in the world, but she is amazing.

There are countless other people who have positively influenced me over the years, and I am very thankful for them.

As a gift to the company, I am transferring the domain name newmediaminded.com over to CBS Corp. I helped build this blog with Marc Mendell and Libby Bittner for the interns to blog.

Okay, I’ve run out of energy and Flickr photos. I have tons of photos actually. From and .

I will be writing even more on The Web Life on ZDNet. Watch for a post a day if I’m on point.

Oh, I almost forgot. Where am I headed to next? Promise you didn’t just scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post to read this?

Here is the only hint I’m giving you: 寧