Dr. Gerry Lemberg passed on Saturday...

I just got off the phone with Gerry's roommate in Surrey and learned that he passed away in his home on Saturday. I was calling to follow up on a conversation we were having - and never thought I would be hearing such a thing.

Gerry was an incredible person - we had met when I was living in London and going to the Democrats Abroad UK events. Gerry was one of the few cantankerous individuals who would always speak his mind when given the chance - and knew what he wanted to do. He dreamed of retiring in Hawaii with the success of his company, SilverFox Venture Partners, and we would talk about his past in companies and Silicon Valley over the years.

His stories included work with the Israeli Army with Moshe Dayan (literally flying a jet from one end of the country to another), working with the founders of Intel at Fairchild (he was one of the five who decided to go VC, rather than entrepreneur) and other efforts over the years. We used to meet at the IOD in London for conversations about business ideas and opportunities that were percolating in London and abroad.

He started SilverFox with the idea that, while young meant energy and ambition, "silver hairs" meant wisdom and guile - and could create better companies out of their efforts. He was instrumental in me meeting various people and getting a much better perspective on the world from his eyes. He was doing a lot of teaching in Europe - in particular, helping get the Brits and other countries out of their risk adverse situations, and into building real companies. One of his supplemental handouts can be found on Christian Mayaud's blog, Sacred Cow Dung.

He will be missed - more than I could ever imagine. In just two days, he is already missed on his ecademy profile and I assume will be across the European entrepreneurial space rather soon.

I send my love and regards to his family and his roommate.