It’s with heavy hearts that we share that Cliff Racz, age, 38, passed away at his home on Monday, July 11, 2016. He was born on July 24, 1977 in Key West, Florida and lived most of his life in Indiana.
Cliff was a loving father to five children, Clifford James, Elijah, Gideon, Zacchaeus, and Maya. He was also the “assistive technology provider” for his brother Charles, who lived with a severe disability from birth, and passed away in 2014.
As you know, Cliff was the “mechanic” behind the curtain for the development of the current www.agrability.org website and had just completed the redesign to allow the site to have mobile access. He was our “go-to-guy” for all things electronic, and if he couldn’t fix it, it wasn’t broke.
Cliff earned his B.S. in Physics, a M.S. in Agricultural Engineering and was a Ph.D. candidate with plans to graduate in December of 2016. He was an outstanding teacher and contributed to developing two new Purdue courses in Homeland Security and AgroSecurity.
There is no way to express in a few words the many contributions Cliff made to the success of the AgrAbility Program. He had a passion for making assistive technology readily available to everyone who needed it, and saw the Internet as a tool to accomplish this goal. His impact has been felt, literally, around the world as people with disabilities access the site and adopt new assistive technology solutions.
The National AgrAbility Project staff will remember him for his wonderful analytical mind, his willingness to speak up for those who couldn’t, his political commentary that work and sweat are better than welfare, his belief that the beauty of creation did not come about by chance, and how proud he was of his children.
He will be missed.
Submitted by Bill Field