Yesterday the search community got the gut wrenching news that Jordan Kasteler has passed away. Everyone was floored, shocked, saddened, and deeply upset by the news. Jordan Kasteler has been part of our industry since he was a kid, young adult. He has been a fixture at so many search conferences, so many local meet ups, so many online forums, video hangouts and so much more. But he is no longer with us today – he is in a better place.

Jordan Kasteler has given so much of his life to the search community. Besides for the countless articles he has written at Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, on his professional site, and so many niche SEM blogs. He was always someone who smiled and made his colleagues laugh. As I browse through Facebook, I see photo after photo of Jordan smiling with his friends, making his colleagues laugh through fun acts and embracing someone who needs to be listened to.

His personal feed is not just filled with SEM advice and tips but also his passion to protect animals and support animal rights. Just last week, I saw he updated his Facebook profile that he started to work freelance again. It is shocking news to me and to the community of his passing.

The community has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for funeral expenses for the family and also to help support his family and young son Jax. Please give what you can and spread the word to give.

I asked some folks to share their thoughts of Jordan, here are some of those:

Mark Jackson from Vizion Interactive:

Ross Dunn from StepForth:

Keith L. Goode from IBM:

Jim Hedger from Digital Always Media:

Chris Silver Smith from Argent Media:

Shelly Fagin from Highly Searched:

Eric Enge from Stone Temple:

Like I said, the community is deeply sad by the news. In fact, we have lost many people in our industry before but I don’t believe I have ever seen the industry so shaken up from a passing as much as this one. And for good reason, as I said above, he was so tight and close with so many of us. Plus, his young age and young family just makes the news so much harder.

Here are some posts on Twitter from just some of the folks in our industry, I am sure I missed many of you, the posts are so overwhelming, I couldn’t find them all:

Here is the public post from Jordan’s sister:

His sister set up a meal train to cook for the family for a bit and don’t forget these is this GoFundMe.

Jordan – as you can see from just a sampling of the public community tweets, you will be so so deeply missed.

Forum discussion at Twitter.