Sad news, indeed. Rob was the first member of the AHA Board of Advisers (now Governing Committee) elected to the Board by the AHA membership. That was in 1999, the year before I started working for the AHA. Rob was one of the most passionate advocates for homebrewing I've ever known. I recall his signature on his HBD posts was something like: "The more I know about beer, the more I know I need to know more about beer."