Fred Hasson

Note from Tamsin Shasha:

It was with great sadness that we say farewell to the kind and gentle man that was Fred Hasson.

A maverick in the games development community in Brighton and beyond, I met Fred at Platf9rm in Hove at the free fortnightly coding club he established in Brighton called Coder Dojo. I attended with my son Theo in Oct 2023 as I was looking for something that could occupy Theo other than gaming and a coding club that providing learning in computer language – Scratch and Python – sounded perfect. And it was. We became regular attendees. Fred was always warm, engaging and friendly. A sort of BFG! We struck up a friendship and ended up collaborating on our Magic from Myth storytelling and coding project over a couple of years and gained support from Raspberry Pi amongst others. Fred was keen to support the project and passionate about providing access to digital opportunities for young people from less advantageous backgrounds. aod was keen to engage young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Between us the project realised its ambition and Fred attended several of our workshops. It was our dream to take the project to Brighton Dome & Festival and establish an annual Magic from Myth Codathon.  We never got that far unfortunately.

When Fred was diagnosed with MND his decline was rapid and all consuming. He had a lust for life. Always active. Very social. A great traveller and lover of jazz and fine wine. Not to mention fine dining. We had a couple of wonderful meals together and would have celebrated many more I’m sure.

I miss him greatly. His spirit, generosity and warmth live on. And the legacy of Coder Dojo will continue…..

RIP