William O Swan is mourned by BACnet community
In an announcement, BACnet said that William O Swan, Vice President and honorary member of the BACnet Interest Group Europe (BIG-EU), and one of the founders and designers of the international BACnet community, passed away on June 4 in California after a short and serious illness.
According to BACnet, he represented the BIG-EU at the BACnet Forum in London in April, and had opened the BACnet Plugfest in Saarbrücken in May.
BACnet said that Swan had been active in the BIG-EU since 2003. Because of his outstanding technical skills and dedication to the BACnet standard, he was made an honorary member in 2005 and included in the advisory board. His election as Vice President followed in 2007. From 2004 to 2008 he was also Chairman of the American BACnet standards body SSPC 135 of ASHRAE.
Recalling Swan’s achievements, BACnet said that during this period, the number of working groups which developed new application areas increased to 11, which enabled integration of non-HVAC areas, such as lighting and elevator control, access control and web services. He was known for his weblog, The BAC-Cave. (http://bacnetbill.blogspot.com/).
Recounting his early days with the organisation, the obituary said that in 1995, as one of the first engineers at Alerton, he was charged with the development of building automation through BACnet. He developed a passion for it that motivated him right to the end, and which makes him an irreplaceable person, BACnet said, and added that his sudden death has left a large void in the organisation.
