Tribute to Magikal

A few hours ago I received an email from London with confirmation of Magikal's death.

It's difficult for me to explain the loss of a friend so forgive any mistakes I may make.

I believe it was Thursday, December the 11th, when I first thought of sending Kevin holiday greetings. Before doing so I decided to check his web site to see what he had been up to recently. I have a massive number of bookmarks and I couldn't find his URL so I decided to use Google to look it up.

Before continuing I should point out a few facts: Magikal's name is Kevin Reay, he lived in London, was a highly respected Professional Master Magician and the only Magician to have won all of the U.K.'s major awards for close-up Magic, Northern Magic Circle, The Magic Circle, The International Brotherhood of Magicians and "The International Magic Competition".

As I searched for his web site I came upon an article. I believe it was published in MagicWeek. The article, dated 19 July, 2003, was in reference to a 'close-up' magic competition. It stated they had "renamed the trophy "The Kevin Reay Close-up Award" as a tribute to, and in memory of, Kevin who was the first ever winner back in 1984 and who died tragically last month". That article places his death in the June, 2003 timeframe.

I don't know how or why he died as I was unable to acquire that information. In the scheme of things it really doesn't matter. I also checked and found his last post was 5/18/03. His web site was virtually unchanged from the way it appeared many months ago. I sent emails to both of his addresses and found one was full and the postmaster returned the other. His magic site (which he shared with me as a friend) was also unchanged.

Not wanting to make a stupid mistake I sent a picture of Kevin to a contact in London who knew the Kevin Reay who had died. That gentleman confirmed that it was indeed Magikal.

I know a little about his personal life but feel it is inappropriate to comment as I didn't know his family. I can say that he is survived by Anna, his 10 year old daughter as he mentioned her in one of his text files.

Why has this taken so long to surface? I can only tell you what I thought was happening. The Community Chest project had just ended and I felt he was taking a break from all the work he had put into his two maps, especially map 29. On my end I was involved in some personal family and business issues.

Kevin and I were friends and I respected him as an individual and a player. We had our occasional disagreements but that's not unusual amongst friends. Most fortunately, we always reconciled.

He loved to build wads, with a special emphasis on puzzels, and record demos. You'll find several demos at Opulent's DSDA site. One of his best was of scythe, map 26 although he had many others. His web site (http://www.magikal.supanet.com/) is still available and you'll find other demos there.

In addition to the various wads he designed for speed mapping events, he created three other wads. They include: goin'down.wad, cata.wad, and industrl.wad. Goin'Down and cata were featured as maps 6 and 29 respectively in the Community Chest megawad.

In summary I can only wish him my best wherever he is and hope that somehow he knows he's not forgotten.


Rich Sham
12/16/03


EDIT: I should add that myk found a recent newspaper article referencing Kevin's death. I add a portion of it here because, on occasion, these articles become unavailable. It states:


First published on Friday 12 December 2003:
Magician's rail viaduct death stays mystery
by Bruce Unwin

MYSTERY surrounds the reason why a magician plunged to his death from a railway viaduct.

An open verdict was yesterday recorded into the death of 45-year-old Kevin Reay, at an inquest in Dur-ham.

He was found lying under Crimdon Dene viaduct, on the Durham side of the county boundary with Hartlepool, on Tuesday, May 20.

very sad news, indeed :(

Yes, this is sad...

my condolences.

Oh man, this sucks :( Magikal was a cool guy. He was a regular for my speedmapping compilations and along with Erik Alm made a demo set of my first but I wondered why he never made any of the ones I held after June. His connection sucked so he usually had trouble getting his maps in on time, but I always squeezed them in anyway.

R.I.P. Magikal.

Fuck. Why do doomers always have to die?

Another Doomer gone...
Why is it all the good people always have to die?

terrible news. i remember reviewing industrl.wad quite vividly. for what little it's worth, i regret any undue disrespect i may have paid him or his friends.

:( This is truly some grim news.
Magikal was a very respectful person, it pains me to bear such a loss. :'( Just wish I could have got to known him better in the time given..

Rest in peace, Magikal. :(

My condolences. That's sad news to hear.

This is the first Doomer who has died who I've actualy heard of beforehand. That sucks.

I hate it when stuff like this happens. I never have anything good to say.

His candor and his talent will be missed by all who knew him.

Great player, talented mapper, great person.

Maybe one of the Doom Gods will do a prboom demo of his last map, Cchest map 29 in his honor.

We will sure miss ya' MagiKal :(

Bloodshedder said:

I hate it when stuff like this happens. I never have anything good to say.

Just your showing up in this thread would have meant a lot to him.

Perhaps you're right. I had always thought of him as a productive forum member, always contributing meaningful posts. Sadly, only now had I actually noticed he was missing.

I'm very sorry to hear this -- I do recall him somewhat and he was a good person. I hope he finds peace wherever he may be and enjoys meeting Houdini in that big carnival in the sky.

My condolences. Rest in peace.

Sad news indeed; I was going to make a reference to the plutonia ending but it would've ended up being more awkward than flattering. Frag on, wherever you are Magikal. :)

Oh shit, that's terrible... :( I really don't know what to say. Like Dan I actually knew Magikal beforehand... My thoughts go out to Kevin's family and I hope that wherever he is, he is happy.

I noticed his absence, and to be honest there aren't many people on here who's absence would be noticed so quickly for me.
I didn't feel any remorse when NoSkill died other than the loss of a good player... but I knew Magikal a bit. He was a friendly guy who truly enjoyed this game... and he spread and encouraged that feeling in others. I could say the same thing about many of the DOOMers on here, but that is my point: He was someone just like me, and I miss him already.
Very nice words Rich, as you can see from everyone's comments, they felt the same way about him.
Although I don't believe in an afterlife, I hope you did Kevin... peace be with you forever.

Damn, I have been wondering for a long timewhy we had not seen him for so long time. And now this comes. :(
Damn, I can't believe it. Serious, I can't. He were such a cool guy. I have had many chats with him about random stuff (eg: mapping, general life, etc). Never knew him personaly, but I will miss very much. I dunno what rest to say, I am in chock.

RiP magikal. :/
We will miss you.

It's a shame... another fine doomer passing away. Truly a sad moment for the doom community.

RIP Magikal

I didn't really know Magikal, but I had heard of him (mostly from speedmapping contests, but of course also for the "Community Chest" project). What can I say? This kind of news is always saddening. It breaks my heart thinking of the pain people who knew him, and his family, are feeling. :'-(

You have my deepest sympathy.

Oh no... I was wondering why he was absent, this is not what I expected of course :(

Magikal was a great friend who I often discussed maps and demos with, it's really, really sad that he is gone. I don't know what else to say, this is a sad day for me.

Although I don't know who he is, I send my deepest regards and best wishes to the family.

The magic is gone. This is a bad day.

All things come to an end. Let us who still survive remember the good of the past and strive to better the future that we too may be remembered well when our time comes. Sleep well Magikal.

I remember Magikal from the speedmapping events. Very sad news indeed. Rest in peace, Kevin.

:-(

Speedmapping, when we were at it, was fun.
The way I started to know him,
the way I keep him in mind.
Rest In Peace.

Damn! Condolences to his family from me and mine.