Posted in Online Publishing Strategy	January 5, 2007

There are only a handful of people in my life whom I've so admired that I said to myself, "I want to be more like you."

Rodney Friedman was such a man.

He was a visionary whose creativity and business acumen are reflected in a lifetime of achievement in the publishing world. During his distinguished career, he founded two prominent health print publications—The University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter and the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter—and was an Internet pioneer during the dot-com era when he founded WholeHealthMD.

His latest venture, as publisher and editorial director of Johns Hopkins University Health Publishing, was the Johns Hopkins Health Alerts website.

He always had his priorities straight. While he was a financially successful entrepreneur, he was always focused on the customer. He deeply cared—first and foremost—about his subscribers who were struggling with health issues.

He believed in well-researched, open and accessible journalism. The editorial standards he set and achieved are the absolute pinnacle of excellence in the health publications field.

He was my esteemed mentor, colleague, and friend—one of the people I admired most. He was a great publisher and a great human being who lived to help others.

Rodney Friedman died January 1, 2007 following a long illness.

A light went out in the world.