Lee Dirks

We are profoundly saddened by the untimely and tragic death of our dear friend and colleague Lee Dirks, who was killed together with his wife Judy Lew in a road accident in the Peruvian Andes.

Lee had recently been elected to the Board of Directors for Dryad.  He also served on the Board of Visitors for the UNC School of Information Sciences (of which he was a proud alumnus) and was a member of the Board of the SILS Metadata Research Center.  Lee made a named for himself in recent years as Director of Education and Scholarly Communication at Microsoft.

Lee was a visionary information scientist, a warm and generous personality, and a man who loved adventure.  The number of people whose lives he touched in his own short life was staggeringly large.

Lee and his wife are survived by their two young daughters, who were at home in Seattle at the time of the accident.  Our thoughts are with them.  And we will miss Lee greatly.