Sad news about Loserman76

Ian (WVP) · Dec 3, 2021

Just read this over at VPForums

Hi Everyone,

It's with a heavy heart that I must announce the unexpected passing of Loserman76 (Jeff Whitehead) on November 16th.
I don't know any details. I just happened upon the email his wife sent in response to a PM notification from another member.
It's always a sad day when we lose one of our own.
I would love to hear stories of people's interaction with him. He was a good guy, and I feel I missed a great opportunity to get to know him better. So, if you have any stories, please share.

RIP, Jeff.

Isaac Sauvage · Dec 3, 2021

Damn, I'm sorry to hear that, and thank you for the update, Ian.

Unfortunately, the scene splitting in to different sites and sub-communities over the years has meant that there's a lot of people I didn't properly meet after ~2009 or so. I blame myself to some degree, as I should have made a better effort hanging out at the relaunched VPF, as well as the two other top sites, VPU & VPinball (RIP, again). Then again, my passion for pinball sort of left me for a decade before coming back recently. (you know how those things go) And it's not the same situation, anyway. Meaning, VPF, Rascal's lair, VPU, the FB scenes, PN, and a couple of smaller scenes pretty-well ensure that it would be almost a 24/7 job for a hive-mind social butterfly to keep track of everyone.

ANYway... I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet Jeff, although I'm a huge admirer of his reconstruction art. So far I've added a few of his backglass works here: (at reduced quality, to respect the source site VPU)

Search results for query: loserman*

pinballnirvana.com

Do you know if we have any biographical info or stories about him, Ian? (I mean, from VPU & VPF, etc?)

jogrady7 · Dec 7, 2021

Loved his tables. He will be missed. Found this on line

Isaac Sauvage · Dec 11, 2021

Although Archive.Org could potentially be used as a source, I thought I'd reach out to Dazz and Noah for their blessing upon sharing some of Jeff's latest stuff here, only available on their sites.

I figured the last table @Loserman76 published ("Bow and Arrow") would be a good place to start, so I reached out to JPSalas and @goldchicco as well, both supporting authors on that one.

Welp, Noah and JP quickly replied in very supportive terms. So, knock on wood-- it looks like we're good to do a small tribute to Jeff's work at PN. :-)