Joel Kallman

 

I started using Oracle APEX in 2003 and immediately fell in love.  The tool was so intuitive to use; I was immediately off and running building all sorts of applications quickly and easily with no training.  Best of all it was free, and not the "loss-leader free" designed to draw you in, but really free; all you needed was an Oracle database.  The next delight I was to discover was the APEX community!  A welcoming, friendly group of developers with a passion for APEX and keen to help.  No egos, no agendas; just a common belief that APEX is for everyone and the sky's the limit.  I learned early on that "good programmers write code, great programmers write software that writes good code" (something like that).

I came across Joel Kallman at some point around 10 years ago when he was presenting at an Oracle workshop.  We got talking and immediately hit it off, possibly because of his great taste in clothes, spectacles and hairstyles (see photo).  When I found out that Joel had written APEX with Mike in the late 90s, it all made sense; the philosophy, the usability, the community; it was all an extension of Joel.  He was genuinely interested in our use of APEX and some of the innovations we had produced like: a test automation framework, configurable authorisation schemes, centralised user manager etc.  He suggested that I may want to share some of those innovations with the community on the conference circuit.  

And so for the last 10 years, I have travelled to various locations in Europe and the US to present, not just those innovations, but also on security, best practice, testing, agile, cloud migration and many more.  During that time I got to know Joel and other members of the APEX community very well.  They included me in everything, made me feel welcome and part of a unique and amazing fellowship.   Like many others, I got to know Joel on a personal level.  His father flew in the Super-fortress during WWII, mine flew v-bombers, which gave us a common interest in military history.  We shared books and film recommendations and spent many a late night, chewing the fat over a cold one after a conference or meeting.  I took comfort from his faith and spiritual guidance and always took note of advice.

When COVID hit, Joel stepped up to the plate.  He could see straight away that APEX could make a real difference with combating the pandemic.  APEX has been at the heart of the fast delivery of secure, scalable apps in support of COVID across the world.  Most are open-sourced and available to anyone that needs them.  Joel also brought the community together and kept our morale going with initiatives such as the APEX@HOME series of talks.  Joel also found the time to personally help me complete a challenging cloud migration, which will be the subject of my Kscope 21 presentation later this month.

In a cruel twist of irony, Joel was sadly taken from us last week after falling ill with COVID.  My heart goes out to his family, work colleagues and friends during this sad time.  Most of all; I shall miss my friend; his infectious smile, dry wit and counsel.  God speed Joel, see you on the other side.