Fitzo

Matthew Gregory

Matthew Gregory

Chief Executive in charge of Entertainment
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
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Yesterday, my friend and long time knifemaker member of BladeForums Shoptalk, fitzo fitzo passed.

Mike had been an early member here, and a maker dating back to the 80s. He was one of the guys that took me under his wing when I started, and we remained in touch and friends throughout the years, growing closer over time. He was a chemist by trade, in his working years, but was truly a renaissance man, and someone I relied on for a clearer perspective when I was mired in a design or construction detail.

I find myself wishing for one last conversation with him.


I think this is too close for me to express more, here.
 
Sorry to hear this. I had some nice exchanges with him as a fellow chemist, and sent him some terotuff samples for testing.
RIP
 
Very sad to hear, I always enjoyed reading his posts. Prayers to his loved ones during this time.
 
Bummer, I learned a lot from him when I was starting out.
I can only hope his loved ones can quickly turn their sorrow into belief that he's evolved to a better place.
 
Knife makers suffered a great loss this week, friends and family suffered a greater one. Mike was a close and dear friend for more than 20 years and he took me under his wing just like Matt, and probably around the same time. When I first started making knives in the early 2000s, Mike was a regular fixture on knife forums and always gave a wealth of information in his posts and replies. Back then we had a knife making Paltalk group where folks would hop on and voice chat, which was still kind of a big deal to be able to do back in the stone age. Mike and I made a quick friendship bonding over not just making knives, but many shared interests and common life experiences.

Mike was self-made with a bit of a rebellious streak, which is just how I saw myself as well. He’d been a career chemist for a large pharmaceutical company but held no degrees or titles. He just learned the work and got to be one of the best in his field. He encouraged me throughout my career to not let those same degrees or titles hold me back.

Mike sold me my first belt grinder, a Bader II and I drove up to IL from Jacksonville, NC to get it. Him and Nancy opened their home to me and we spent that weekend talking knives and going out to the knife show in Chicago. I went home with a fully loaded grinder, a box of “spare” materials from Mike, and a couple surface ground blade blanks. The materials alone were probably worth what he charged me for the grinder.

Mike and I would spend hours on the phone, sometimes 3 or even 4 hours and talked about all things in life. Not only did we talk about knives, but we shared in all of our great and small successes, failures, and personal loss. We had a shared love of music and would both turn each other onto new artists or talk about whatever instrument we were excited about that week. Mike guided me through my biggest job change and he's one of two people who's given me advice that I’ve carried throughout my career and applied to every job change. I have a thousand stories about Mike, which is probably about 1 for every hour we spent on the phone.

There wasn’t a thing that I couldn’t talk about with him and I don’t know how many times you get that in this world. It sure hasn’t been too many for me. I shed a tear yesterday and a few more writing this today.

I’ll miss you my old friend, more than anyone can know.

Cap
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Yesterday, my friend and long time knifemaker member of BladeForums Shoptalk, fitzo fitzo passed.

Mike had been an early member here, and a maker dating back to the 80s. He was one of the guys that took me under his wing when I started, and we remained in touch and friends throughout the years, growing closer over time. He was a chemist by trade, in his working years, but was truly a renaissance man, and someone I relied on for a clearer perspective when I was mired in a design or construction detail.

I find myself wishing for one last conversation with him.


I think this is too close for me to express more, here.
Click to expand...
None of the "reactions" quite fit how I want to react to this post, but I think you know more than most how I feel about all this.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Yesterday, my friend and long time knifemaker member of BladeForums Shoptalk, fitzo fitzo passed.

Mike had been an early member here, and a maker dating back to the 80s. He was one of the guys that took me under his wing when I started, and we remained in touch and friends throughout the years, growing closer over time. He was a chemist by trade, in his working years, but was truly a renaissance man, and someone I relied on for a clearer perspective when I was mired in a design or construction detail.

I find myself wishing for one last conversation with him.


I think this is too close for me to express more, here.
Click to expand...
Matt the passing of someone so important seems so final and brutal.

My deepest condolences to you and all who knew him.
 
Sad news, rip Fitzo. It’s strange I was just thinking about him the other day.
 
Such sad news. I remember reading his posts on various forums since the early 2000's when I started getting into knives and making them!
 
Sorry to hear this, prayers for the family, RIP.
 
I hate to hear this. I knew he was in bad health and didn’t know him nearly as well as many on here but he was always fun to chat with in all of my interactions with him. Most of them went sideways in all the best ways. I worked with another member to send him a little “pick me up” early last year. I didn’t know him personally but he made an impact on me and I needed to thank him for it somehow.

I was wondering how he was doing the other day since I hadn’t seen him on here for a while. I’ve certainly missed his presence around here.
 
Very sad news. My condolences to his family and all who were close and called him friend.
 
That is sad news. He was a fixture on Shoptalk as far back as I can recall and I always enjoyed reading his advice. I had sort of noticed he hadn’t been posting, but didn’t consider he was unwell.
RIP.
 
Thank you for sharing that, Matt.
I, also, had many interactions with Mike. It was easy to get words of encouragement from him, and it would be difficult to find a more honest man.
We are less today.
RIP, Mike Fitzgerald.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Yesterday, my friend and long time knifemaker member of BladeForums Shoptalk, fitzo fitzo passed.

Mike had been an early member here, and a maker dating back to the 80s. He was one of the guys that took me under his wing when I started, and we remained in touch and friends throughout the years, growing closer over time. He was a chemist by trade, in his working years, but was truly a renaissance man, and someone I relied on for a clearer perspective when I was mired in a design or construction detail.

I find myself wishing for one last conversation with him.


I think this is too close for me to express more, here.
Click to expand...
Sorry for your loss!
 
Big time Bummer. My condolences to his family and all who were close and called him friend. He 'n I exchanged a few emails talking about different things. He lived up around Zion, ILL where I lived 50 yrs ago. I'll sure miss his posts and chats.
 
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