<div><strong>Our dear stepfather Earl C. Van Horn sadly lost his long fight with multiple health conditions on Thursday, January 15th, 2026, at the age of 86.</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Earl was a highly intelligent man who graduated with a PhD in electrical engineering from MIT and wrote his thesis in computer science back when the first computers were still being developed. He was an exceptionally patient and caring husband who endured watching terrible diseases overcome both his first wife, Sandy, and his current wife, Micki. He was very spiritual and fully devoted to his church and church choir. He was a philanthropist who volunteered for and donated generously to multiple charities that upheld his values of democratic ideals and continuous learning.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We all knew Earl as the generous, sociable, compassionate, curious, intelligent (and of course bad joke-telling!) man that he was, but he was far too proud to discuss things as personal as financial debt, or to ask for help, not even from his own family. He just put on a brave face and marched on. With new visibility into his situation after his passing, we can only imagine the financial stress he has been under in the last years, and we are heartbroken.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>In full transparency, we are starting this<strong> GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay off some of the outstanding costs that were left behind after his passing: personal debt, current bills and legal and accounting fees, but most importantly medical bills for himself and his wife and his funeral costs.</strong> We are hoping that once the house can be sold, we will be able to pay off remaining debt, but it is heavily mortgaged and with taxes to be paid first, there is no guarantee.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>This was an extremely difficult decision to make and we would <strong>never</strong> choose to do it if we did not feel that the situation was desperate. <strong>Every donation helps, no matter the size.</strong> If you are unable to donate, please help us to get the word out to Earl's friends who may wish by to contribute by clicking on "Share" below. Note that GoFundMe adds an automatic 17.5% "Tip" for making a donation and you can adjust this amount as you see fit.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>If any funds remain from Earl's GoFundMe after his estate is settled, they will not be made available for our personal use, but rather they will go towards charities that Earl named in his will: Trinitarian Congregational Church of Concord, MA, WGBH Educational Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Walnut Hills High School Alumni Foundation.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Thank you in advance for your help and generosity,
</div>
<div>Mark &amp; Lia Spitzer
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>To view Earl's obituary, please click here: </strong><a href="https://www.forevermissed.com/earl-c-vanhorn?short_code=Dk9w3KWL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong><a href="https://www.forevermissed.com/earl-c-vanhorn?short_code=Dk9w3KWL" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.forevermissed.com/earl-c-vanhorn?short_code=Dk9w3KWL</a></strong></a>
</div>

Anonymous

Janet Lawson

Donald Sherman

Rakesh Thakur

Mallory Radu

Theodore Scott

Ankur Kapil

Jim Willis

charles Barrett

Edward Connors

Honoring Earl's Legacy and Final Wishes

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

Eligible for Profile Share Badge

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

isEligibleForProfileBadge

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Honoring Earl's Legacy and Final Wishes

Still $78,850 to go. Help us build momentum.