April 24, 1962 - February 12, 2023
My good friend Peter Nagy, who I had known from
my college days at Cal Poly and worked with
at IGT,
developed a disease called TTP
back in 2018. TTP is where your immune system gets the idea
that your platelet are the enemy and tries to remove them from
you body as fast as possible. It effects about 3 in 1,000,000
people and being that rare, not many doctors are familiar enough
with the symptoms to recognize it. It almost killed him then. He
was 4 days in the hospital before one doctor recognized the
symptoms and prescribed plasma exchange and Rituximab
which, applied over the course of 3 months, completely cured
him. Peter was really good after that to get a blood test
frequently in case it came back. But after 6 years passed,
naturally he and all of us thought it was gone for good. But it
came back early February 2023 and no one, including Peter,
recognized it until it was too late.
Peter was an brilliant engineer and a talented astrophotographer. He grew up in San Rafael California. Born deaf, he learned to read lips early and dreamed of working for Beltone Hearing aids. With his dads help, he learned how to use a telescope to take pictures of the stars and also became very skilled at car repair. After graduating Cal Poly with a BS in Electrical Engineering, he worked in Ridgecrest California for defense contractor Raytheon on the F14 Tomcat avionics. Then switched to working for Texas Instruments as an application engineer. After that, he moved to Reno to work for IGT and developed many very popular Gaming Themes like "The Price is Right", "Wheel of Fortune" and "Ultimate X Poker" before retiring in March of 2016. After that, he rediscovered astrophotography and invested in a fantastic telescope system. He also helped many other armature astrophotographers by answering questions on the Cloudy Nights astrophotography forum.
Peter, gone too soon! You will be missed!
Peter was an brilliant engineer and a talented astrophotographer. He grew up in San Rafael California. Born deaf, he learned to read lips early and dreamed of working for Beltone Hearing aids. With his dads help, he learned how to use a telescope to take pictures of the stars and also became very skilled at car repair. After graduating Cal Poly with a BS in Electrical Engineering, he worked in Ridgecrest California for defense contractor Raytheon on the F14 Tomcat avionics. Then switched to working for Texas Instruments as an application engineer. After that, he moved to Reno to work for IGT and developed many very popular Gaming Themes like "The Price is Right", "Wheel of Fortune" and "Ultimate X Poker" before retiring in March of 2016. After that, he rediscovered astrophotography and invested in a fantastic telescope system. He also helped many other armature astrophotographers by answering questions on the Cloudy Nights astrophotography forum.
Peter, gone too soon! You will be missed!