One of the founding members of the modern Furry Community recently passed away at the age of 71 on the 20th of February, Sy Sable or Mark Merlino, who has been involved in the furry community since 1971 and has helped created/fostered the community since its gradual formulation in the 1980s/90s.
One of his notable contributions was the creation of the first furry convention, ConFurence, in 1989 with his partner, Rod O'Riley. Alongside, many more things since then, even up till the current era with involvement in VRChat or within the 2020 documentary "The Fandom" (by Ash Coyote) and so on.
He passed after a series of micro strokes in late December and a recent screening in early February had discovered Stage IV Liver Cancer before his passing a couple of days ago.
Certainly, this is a bit of furry history that most don't really know about, I do recommend to give the documentary a watch and give your friends a check-up. See how they're doing if you haven't poked them in a while.
We've all been going thru a rough patch rn and it's nice that we have this community/server/friendship groups for sticking us all together, it's also been nice to see many in the community coming together to give thanks/condolences in the past couple of days.
I've only spoke with Sy in brief passing on social media a couple of times on topics like VRChat, fandom history, and such. Always tough when someone that you know and have spoken/speak with is gone, I know he's in a better place now. And my condolences go out to his partner and those in the Prancing Skiltaire household.
Vale Sy Sable
More on him: https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Mark_Merlino
Other details can be found here: https://twitter.com/Skiltaire_Party
GoFundMe page started in light of the cancer diagnosis: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-true-fandom-original