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by burnte 2354 days ago
I knew Gerv, he was a convert to Christianity and as usual for converts to any religion, he was intense and fervent in his belief that he had discovered the ultimate truth. Unfortunately that can lead people to embracing the old testament bigotry more than the new testament forgiveness. Gerv wasn't a bad person, but Mitchell wasn't inaccurate in her post. Yes, Gerv was a great thing for Mozilla, but his legacy is not as clear.
3 comments

A CEO in an employee obituary though, isn't their job at that time to laud the good rather than make it sound like "good riddance"?

>Eventually Gerv felt called to live his faith by publicly judging others in politely stated but damning terms. //

So Mitchell's response is to publicly judge him in politely stated but damning terms, whilst simultaneously making an employee's obituary about how they - the obituary writer - were the only thing that moderated the person's overly judgemental nature.

Wowser.

It's like Mitchell realised people would be applauding his work at Mozilla and decided that couldn't be allowed.

It sounds like you're saying his actions at work were abhorrent; or was it that his beliefs were incompatible with yours?

Using an obituary to characterize someone's influence as "traumatic and damaging" is kind of extraordinary.
The whole thing reads as if written by Michael Scott.
That memoriam seems completely out of place. If you are a professional colleague, common sense would dictate that you write a professional piece that reflects on the person's services rendered to Mozilla. The repeated references to the deceased's religious beliefs seem very out of place and distateful, especially in a memoriam. No excuses there.