The source you read from was rather old. That happened well over a year ago.
It certainly was a tragic blow to the community here. He was a gregarious person who got out into the community going to many shows each year and seemed to make it a point to meet every person in every room he went into. As a result, Rob was very well-known and well-liked.
Of course, it didn't hurt that he made fantastic knives and seemed to have an intuititve understanding of metalurgy and metalsmithing.
Last year, at Bladeshow in Atlanta, I looked down an Isle and saw a thin man about 5'6" in a big, black hat and my heart jumped as I said to myself, "Oh look, there's Rob Sim... No." And that really was a sad moment for me. Somehow, Bladeshow was noticably different without him.
He certainly is missed.
