The head of EarthLink had taken a leave of absence just a few weeks ago for treatment of a "serious form of cancer": Garry Betty had run EarthLink since 1996, when he took over several roles from founder Sky Dayton, who remained chairman. Betty kept EarthLink a vital ISP, growing subscribers from 500,000 to 5m over his tenure, while other firms collapsed under the weight of competition first from AOL and MSN and then from incumbent telecom and cable firms.
EarthLink has also been the largest player in city-wide Wi-Fi, a move Betty directed as the company's traditional dial-up customer base shrunk, and court and regulatory decisions made wireline resale of DSL and cable access ever more difficult.
My condolences to Betty's family, friends, and his colleagues at EarthLink.