I am sad to report that the search community has lost another young soul recently. John Thyfault, the VP, Search Engine & Social Media Marketing at Beasley Direct passed away at the young age of 54.
Here is John's bio from his corporate site:
John Thyfault has more than 20 years of marketing, sales, product development experience with specialized search engine and social media marketing expertise. He brings a proven track record of successful campaigns and program conceptualization and implementation. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our clients’ marketing investment addressing business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.Prior to joining Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorship campaigns for Fortune 100 companies in the healthcare (Tylenol®), financial services (American Century Investments), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon and Viactive®). John was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production.John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular For Dummies® book series. Prior, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press in New York City.John is active in industry marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association, has served on the Board of Directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.A nationally recognized speaker on marketing and search engine marketing fundamentals, John is a guest lecturer and leads workshops nationally for industry groups including the Direct Marketing Association and Online Institute. In addition, John trains and mentors executives across a breadth of industries and government agencies in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area. John is an adjunct professor at University of California, Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Extension, for more than 10 years.
He was born 1964 in Denver, he was a husband, father, friend, coach, leader in online marketing and teacher of high tech entrepreneurs and CEOs.
He died suddenly of natural causes on March 10, 2019.
Here is the obituary:
THYFAULT--John Edmond, 54, of Menlo Park, CA died suddenly of natural causes on March 10, 2019. Born in Denver, in 1964, to Maureen Ryan Thyfault, a nurse, and Harold Thyfault, a teacher, John was a curious, wise, caring and gentle husband, father, friend, coach, leader in online marketing and teacher of high tech entrepreneurs and CEOs. As a child, John was a proud sci-fi and history book worm, Dungeons and Dragons aficionado, rock collector, Rocky Mountain camper and hiker. He was an Indian Guide, First Class Boy Scout and Black Belt in Taekwondo. John played Sax in the high school marching band. John was a builder of children's playhouses, wood worker, jewelry maker, master cook, golfer and lover of puns. John relished adventures to National Parks, and visited all 50 states and much of Europe. John lived and enjoyed every minute of his life. He was a dedicated husband, father, son, brother and friend, full of advice and humor as needed. John coached a decade's worth of his daughters' soccer teams and was a loud organized volleyball team dad. He adored supporting his daughters' talented cello and string bass talents. John was a great supporter of wife Karen's successful investor relations career. John and Karen were the ultimate team; he was the ying to her yang. John worked as the vice president of search and social media marketing at Beasley Direct. Earlier, he helped develop the ThirdAge.com web site, IDG Books Worldwide (seller of the Dummies Series). John also served on the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley AMA and the DMA of Northern California. John was an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz for 15 years. He is survived by his wife Karen Lee Bergman and his daughters Julia Thyfault, 17, and Isabelle Thyfault, 15. He is also survived by his father Harold Thyfault, sister Mary Thyfault, brother Michael Thyfault, nieces Katie Clark, Emily Thyfault, Lilah Bergman, nephew Ryan Clark and several cousins. Services were held at Skylawn Memorial, San Mateo, CA on March 16, 2019.
So sad that our good friend @JohnThyfault has passed away. He was well known in the SEM community. I loved him and will miss him. So sorry for his family’s loss
— Barbara Coll (@webmama) March 15, 2019
Forum discussion at Twitter.
