Don't know if there are any other amateur astronomers here, but if so, this is pretty sad news.
Some years back I moderated an online chat with him. Closest I ever got to meeting him.
John Dobson, 1915–2014
The long-lived master of sidewalk astronomy died peacefully on January 15th. Emerging from obscurity in 1968, he introduced simple ideas that revolutionized how amateurs make and use large reflecting telescopes.
Read the rest at
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Joh ... 56881.html