Sorry to hear this. I may have disagreed with him online, but it's always a sad day to hear someone you know has passed away. RIP!

Wow, I have almost no words. May you live on in the minds of all those kids you took in. I will miss you.

This is a huge loss to this website. His contributions are immeasurable and from what I understand he was a class act as a person. Sadly, I never got the chance to meet him. Rest in peace.

I was so looking forward to the campaign homestretch for 2016 and u.p. putting in the kind of effort seen in '08 and '12 (and maybe before) trying to win it for his candidate (as if it could be won here). Almost never agreed politically on /PR (better luck with SEC dominance on college football in the other OMNI). But he undeniably added color and will be missed. RIP.

Sad news, no matter who it is.

Reminds us of our own mortality.

God speed!

.

Oh mercy...last few years I've been in his neck of the woods a lot, and always meant to reach out and say hi, but never followed through for this silly reason or that. My family also fostered numerous children, and I always looked forward to the day when we could share some stories...

Just goes to show there actually a person behind the avatar. UP, you were something else.
I will miss you, and F/T will miss you.

I just wanted to add that I missed this news earlier. Thanks anrkitec for letting me know. I will, and already do, greatly miss seeing U/P here on FT.

I don't think I agreed with a single thing he posted online and I never met him offline. Reading through the tributes, I'm sorry I never had the chance.

RIP. And may your good works echo through the generations. We may never know how many lives we truly touch. I hope, somewhere, he will find out.

Just learned about that as I was searching for some old posts ... very sad. :( He was a great guy.

I met him as part of the Greasy Spoon DO in May, 2009: Brekkie at Waffle House, Lunch at the Varsity, dinner & boat trip at UP's house on the lake, definitely the highlight of the trip.

Did not know that, that's pretty incredible!

Did know that his youngest daughter was adopted.

I don't really participate on FT anymore, but as you can tell from my post count, I did once, and yes, UP was a part of my experience here, and while I never met him, he was almost always a voice of reason, with the occasional witty barb, like "Still bitter?" LOL He participated in good faith, everywhere you saw him.

I would never suggest I knew him better than those who knew him personally. I would say anyway, that I'm genuinely sorry to hear he passed, and I hope his loved ones know that he was respected and admired here (and probably everywhere he went). RIP, UP.

Looking back at my PM history I found a nice note from underpressure that I received after a somewhat nasty OmniPR exchange with another FTer. I did not know him and now I am sorry I did not have the opportunity to meet him.

It is a strange thing, these internet posting forums, where we are constantly communicating with complete strangers and often don't really know who they are or why they disappear...

While underpressure was repeatedly opposed to many of the things I had stated on FT -- whether it involved the airlines, a variety of travel topics and OMNI -- I found that his participation on FT made this place more lively, entertaining and fundamentally enjoyable for me than this place would have otherwise been. I do miss those days and his contributions here.

He was a good example of how people can disagree vigorously and still want to have a good time together despite those disagreements. May he RIP and people remember that it's not a bad thing to disagree and still get along.

He was a fine example of a person who cared.

Agreed - he was fair, he had a sense of humor, and (odd for an internet forum) had the humility to publicly admit on those occasions when he had changed his views on things.

He was the kind of guy who reached out to a complete stranger (me) to provide support after a vicious encounter with a rather abusive poster. RIP.