Mikeal Rogers

Mikeal Rogers, my best friend, my colleague, confidant, and one of a kind partner in countless late night chats and restless travel sprints, has died.

Mikeal died of aggressive cancer.

Words feel wholly inadequate because I want to capture the sweep of what he meant to me and to the many communities he shaped. Mikeal was core to nodejs, from our earliest days at DigitalOcean, when he turned developer evangelism into an act of radical hospitality, late night strategy sessions where we mapped new ideas on napkins, quiet moments where I cried over the weight of life, Mikeal was joy.

Mikeal modeled a rare combination of technical brilliance, clarity, and unfiltered humanity, reminding everyone in his orbit that code is just a conduit for connection for humans, for community. He approached every project with the conviction that open source is not a license but a promise to lift others, and he lived that promise whether arguing a stubborn point at 3 a.m. or sitting with a junior engineer who doubted their place in tech. My own growth traces directly to his insistence that vulnerability and rigor are not opposites but allies, that a great team is forged as much in shared laughter as in polish, that success is hollow if it leaves no room for empathy and compassion.

The grief of losing him is heavy, however even now I can hear his voice "Well John, you see..." urging us to keep building spaces where people feel seen and ideas flow freely. I will carry forward that charge, honoring his memory by doubling down on the principles he lived every day:

curiosity without ego,

generosity without limit,

community without gatekeepers.

My dear dear friend, you saved my life and now I say: rest well, Mikeal, the paths we walked together remain lit by the fires you struck, those of us who traveled with you will keep the flame alive.

I will miss you Mikeal. I love you.