I was just contacted by Mathew Varney, Douglas Varney’s (“knotworkn’s”) son. During a recent conversation Mathew had with his father, my name was mentioned (and remembered), so he decided to contact me with the following regretful news.
Yesterday afternoon, in his garden at his residence in Knoxville Tennessee, Douglas Varney had a sudden heart attack and died. He is survived by his wife and children. He was 63 years old.
An avid knot enthusiast and active contributor to the worldwide community of knot tyers, Douglas was a regular contributor to the IGKT Board, Knottyers (yahoo group), Pineapple Knot Forum, and KHWW. He was the creator of the site http://www.knotworkn.com/ and the designer of the “Cordage Calculator”; a program that computes the cordage lengths for Turks heads and multi-strand knots, and generates a template that can be followed when tying those knots.
As would be expected, Mathew is still reeling from the news of his father’s passing. Still, he knew how much knotting meant to his father, and the many online connections he’d made over the years, and so wanted us (the community at large) to know what happened.
To all friends or acquaintances who either knew or were positively affected by Douglas’s life or work, condolences can be sent to Mathew Varney and the rest of Douglas’s family at: mdvarney@gmail.com.
Please feel free to re-post to the other forums mentioned above (at this time I am only a member of this forum).
Best to you all,
J.D. Lenzen
p.s. Douglas had many images, books, knotting materials and knots he worked with and created. If anyone (ideally an educator or someone associated with community outreach) would like to use Douglas’s knot related possessions to assist them in their work, please contact Mathew Varney at: mdvarney@gmail.com.
