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By Micronews staff
July 22, 2005
Peter Ostertag,
technical lead in the Avalon Element Services team in Redmond,
died June 30 from injuries sustained in a bicycling accident. He
was “a very young” 46, friends said. Peter is survived by his
wife Trish and their children, Mike, 16, and Marianne, 12, as
well as his parents, Henry and Gerda Ostertag, and his brother
Fred.
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Peter Ostertag is pictured running last year's Royal
Victoria Marathon. |
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Ostertag worked at Microsoft for seven years, with projects
such as WinPlus, XMF, Avalon, and other Windows technologies.
Most recently he was primary developer for the XAML (eXtensible
Application Markup Language) parser. Avalon Team colleague and
friend Rob Relyea recalled Peter’s work and work ethic: “He will
have long-lasting impact in the industry. Peter challenged
himself and encouraged his friends when doing marathons and
other extreme events. This is the way he did a lot of things –
pursuing individual excellence and helping his team do great
things."
Former supervisor Mike Hillberg remembered that Peter
graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1982, ranking first
in his electrical engineering class. At Microsoft, Hillberg
said, “Peter knew how to drive for results; he knew how to
follow the rules that mattered, and bend the ones that could be
bent, in order to get the job done.”
Ostertag was an outdoor enthusiast, and loved to run trails,
bicycle and hike. Colleague and running companion Paul David
said Peter had planned to celebrate his birthday in November by
participating in the Everest Marathon, listed in the Guinness
Book of Records as the world's highest-elevation marathon.
"He'd compiled a top 10 list of things he wanted to do during
his lifetime, and this was one of them. Clearly he was a person
who set big goals for himself, and was all about living life to
its fullest.
"I enjoyed working with Peter immensely," David continued.
He was a very productive and focused engineer, and always tried
to do things the ‘right way'. He was unassuming – I think he
might be surprised at how much people enjoyed working with him,
and how much positive impact he had on others. We really miss
him here."
When Ostertag wasn't soaking up life with nature and friends,
he enjoyed photography, woodworking, reading and painting with
watercolors.
A college fund has been set up for Peter and Trish’s
children. Checks can be made payable to: College Bound Fund
(note Ostertag in the check’s memo field) and mailed to: Senior
Financial Consultants, 520 112th Ave., Suite 210, Bellevue, WA
98004 |
