It is with incredible sadness that I write this note today. MacCentral and MacMinute founder Stan Flack passed away quietly on Monday in his Prince Edward Island, Canada home at the age of 42. According to his sister, Stan died of complications to a pre-existing condition.
Stan has been in the Mac industry since 1994 when MacCentral first went online as a weekly publication. Things were a lot different back then—the Internet as we know it was in its infancy—but Stan saw a way to make a successful business.
We both worked at a local newspaper back then and often chatted about having our own business, being our own boss and ruling the world. To a large degree a lot of those goals were accomplished.
I remember Stan walking into my house and saying it was time to take MacCentral to the next level. “We are going to start publishing daily,” he said. He must have known by the dumbfounded look on my face that I wasn’t sure about the idea, but as he explained it, it all started to make sense.
I am remembering so much today as I look back on the last 15 years or so. Our idea of a meeting was getting together for the weekend, renting some console games, getting some movies and laughing until beer spilled over my new carpets. (That happened quite a bit, when I think of it.)
In 1999, Stan sold MacCentral to Macworld. That was definitely a good thing for everyone involved, but a couple of years later Stan got the itch to start another new site. It was then that he founded MacMinute.
I can’t begin to explain how sad I am today. I have so many memories, so many things to say.
Stan was not only my friend, he was a brother. Rest in Peace, Stan.
(Macworld and MacCentral’s Peter Cohen posted a remembrance of Stan on his personal site.—Ed.)