A former core dev who works at Google just passed the news that Fredrik Lundh (also known as Effbot) has died.
Fredrik was an early Python contributor (e.g. Elementtree and the 're' module) and his enthusiasm for the language and community were inspiring for all who encountered him or his work. He spent countless hours on comp.lang.python answering questions from newbies and advanced users alike.
He also co-founded an early Python startup, Secret Labs AB, which among other software released an IDE named PythonWorks. Fredrik also created the Python Imaging Library (PIL) which is still THE way to interact with images in Python, now most often through its Pillow fork. His effbot.org site was a valuable resource for generations of Python users, especially its Tkinter documentation.
Fredrik's private Facebook page contains the following message from November 25 by Ylva Larensson (translated from Swedish):
"""
It is with such sorrow and pain that I write this. Fredrik has left us suddenly.
"""
A core dev wrote: "I felt privileged to be able to study Fredrik's code and to read his writing. He was a huge asset to our community in the early days. I enjoyed his sense of humor as well. I'm sad that he passed away."
We will miss him.