It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our friend and editor, Don Mantle. Don passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 3rd, 2010. He was 58 years old. One of the tough parts about being an internet only enterprise, is we are often insulated from the “real” lives of our colleagues, and it was only by chance that we learned of his passing.
Don came on board in September 2005, the day before Peter van Aarle, our founder, died, making him our most tenured staff member (after myself).
I enjoyed the pleasure of Don’s company a few times at AEE, and I’ll never the time we (Don, myself, another guy or two) were having dinner at the steakhouse in the Mirage and Don excused himself for a moment, and comes back with with a few $100 chips and throws them on the table. When we asked him where they came from, he smiled and said “the blackjack table” and that the dinner was on him. The man was class.
He was a valued member of our staff, watching the review queue, ensuring that the latest movies reviewed by Den, Rog and others were entered on our site in a timely manner. He was also a moderator of the IAFD Direct forum over at Adult DVD Talk.
His talents and good humor will be sorely missed and never duplicated.