This is a sad, sad news :-(
I never met him, but since WordPress 1.5 (when I started using WP professionally) I always found Alex's ideas, code, knowledge immensely useful and offered in a very friendly way.

I'm not good at all with my English, but I want to let know to his wife, his daughter and all this family that Alex contributed to mak e this world a better world.

I'll pray for him and all of his family :-(

Stefano