One of my Oracle heroes has died – farewell to Lex de Haan

On Saturday I was shocked to read the announcement in the newspaper of the death of Lex de Haan. Even though, after the earlier reports on his physical condition, it was not a real surprise, it was very sad news all the same. Lex was such a vibrant, energetic person, it is hard to believe he is dead. Lex was one of my instructors when I started doing Oracle in 1994, when he was working in Oracle Education in The Netherlands. Only later did I realize what an Oracle expert Lex really was. It also took a little while to find out how terribly nice he was – behind that somewhat imposing exterior. He was tall, wore a moustache and frowned a lot. However, like I said: he was incredibly nice.

Lex was an esteemed member of the highly regarded OakTable Network. He had started his own firm, NaturalJoin, and organized the OakTable seminars with high ranking speakers like Tom Kyte, Steve Adams and later this month Jonathan Lewis. The seminars are very well attended by a somewhat elite-crowd. And extremely well organized! He should have presented one himself, being a worldwide expert on SQL! We make grateful use of his book Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus, published in 2005 by the OakTable Press.

Within Oracle has Lex played an important role in Education around
the Oracle Database. A lasting memory of his involvement is his entry
in the EMPLOYEES table in HR schema:

SELECT *<br />FROM   HR.EMPLOYEES <br />WHERE  employee_id = 102<br />/<br /><br />EMPLOYEE_ID FIRST_NAME           LAST_NAME<br />----------- -------------------- -------------------------<br />EMAIL                     PHONE_NUMBER         HIRE_DATE JOB_ID         SALARY<br />------------------------- -------------------- --------- ---------- ----------<br />COMMISSION_PCT MANAGER_ID DEPARTMENT_ID<br />-------------- ---------- -------------<br />        102 Lex                  De Haan<br />LDEHAAN                   515.123.4569         13-JAN-93 AD_VP           17000<br />                      100            90<br />

Thank you, Lex. For being the person you were. You will be missed a lot.

This entry was posted by Lucas Jellema on February 6, 2006 at 11:26 am, and is filed under General, Oracle. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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#1 written by Marco Gralike 7 years ago

I am deeply shocked by this news. I always enjoyed his part on http://www.freelists.org
where he spread his thought’s about SQL at every hour of the day, trying to help others
with their problems (even during his own organized seminars). He made a big impression
on me in a short time.

…
#2 written by Steven Feuerstein 7 years ago

I, too, am very sad to hear this news. I first met Lex back in the late 90s, when he took the initiative to organize trainings by yours truly at the Utrecht Oracle offices. Lex was a big man, with a big and wonderful singing voice, and a big heart. I always very much enjoyed my time with him. And, as Lucas, notes above, he was incredibly knowledgeable about SQL and the Oracle database.

I will miss him and the world of Oracle technologists is smaller without him.
#3 written by Sue Harper 7 years ago

Hi Lucas,

I wonder how many of us Lex inspired? (and taught!) I was a SQL and PL/SQL instructor when I started at Oracle and Lex’s depth of knowledge was an inspiration to me back then. It was such a thrill to meet and then get to know him over the years.

We will all remember him.

Regrds
Sue Harper
#4 written by Erik Kerkhoven 7 years ago

I am very shocked and sad about this news. I know Lex from the time I worked for Oracle EMEA. He was indeed a very nice person.
#5 written by Andre Crone 7 years ago

I agree. Lex was incredibly nice and a gifted teacher. This is really a big shock.
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