Used to work in the UK some time in late seventies, therefore a doyen of computing in our little town. Came back and got a job with the rest of the guys who joined DBA in april 1989. Had to stay there for several months longer than they, because of a clause in the contract for the apartment he got on that job.
He got into drinking during my DBA years - he'd usually volunteer to drive to the customer (which could be on the other end of Serbia), knowing he'll volunteer too when the customer offers a drink. We talked on the phone when I visited in 2005, and he sounded quite incoherent. Went through the rehab, and is back to his old self now. He's always been my mate from the muppet show gallery - ready for a pun, or any other kind of joke. Though, I seem to acquire such mates pretty much everywhere.
He died, so I hear, mid-summer 2019, just when I retired and started seriously thinking of reconnecting with the guy, now that I had the time. The wife died in winter 2022/3.