Jeff Freeman was my right hand man for 6 years. He was the straight man to my lunacy, someone who balance out my development ideas. We were a great team together.
He was one of the best developers I’ve ever worked with as well as a good friend. Through thick and thin on Galaxies, launch, Jedi, JTL, NGE, Expansions and Live.
It’s hard to know what else to say other than he’ll be sorely missed.
According to Raph Koster, Jeff was the guy who took Ultima Online’s pet system and gave it his own spin in Star Wars Galaxies in the form of the Creature Handler profession. In so doing, he deeply touched thousands of us.
Indeed, he will be sorely missed, by us gamers as well as the dev community.
There is a thread on http://www.mmorpg.com about Freeman. You are welcome to post your thoughts and memories there. Amusingly, one poster has asked:
“I wonder if the thread would have been so large and so full of warm thoughts towards Jeff Freeman if it had been not about him but about his former colleague Dan ‘Om Nom Nom’ Rubenfield?”