Pemaquid Communications

Four years and one week ago Zack Gaulkin was killed in a car accident on I-95 while on his way home to Kennebunkport. At some point each spring since then I catch myself thinking about Zack, who I worked with at MaineToday.com during the year 2000 in the midst of the ‘dot-com’ bubble and what was then called The New Economy.

Zack was a lot like me, I think - mid-thirties, each with a young family, each deeply involved in online publishing and excited about all the new and crazy things that were happening online in general. Zack, who was MaineToday’s Online Editor, was technically my boss (I was a Content Developer), never made me feel that way. We were more like peers. We would have long conversations about where we thought the ‘Net was headed next and how we could take advantage of them for MaineToday (or for ourselves). In a sense I felt we were kindred spirits, and since his passing I haven’t found many people who are tuned to the same wavelength.

Though I don’t think I could ever say we were close enough personally to be considered good friends, we did have that bond, and I miss that. I miss him.

Zack passed away before blogging became fashionable. Before social networking. Before this buzz everybody is calling ‘Web 2.0′. It’s too bad. He would have loved it. I’m sure he would have absolutely loved having his own blog, and with his quick wit at the keyboard he would have been spectacular.

So, as I rather awkwardly make an attempt to put my own blog together, I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate it to his memory. As I post, I will try to think to myself ‘what would Zack do?’.

It is interesting to imagine him being the next person to submit a comment.

I remember a conversation not long before I left MaineToday. I told him though I had worked as a reporter and now w/t/Portland Press Herald’s online group I didn’t consider myself a ‘journalist’. I was more business-oriented, I said.

“Oh no,” said Zack. “You’re definitely a journalist.” I disagreed…then.

But now, I think he might have been right.