My friend Josh Cohen died unexpectedly of a heart attack last Friday while attending a conference. I am shocked and saddened.

We met in Seattle, I'm thinking in 2006 or 2007, through mutual friends. He was brilliant at what he did. He worked for Microsoft at the time, negotiating international standards. To put it mildly, the work was above my head.

In 2009 he dropped everything to work like a maniac on the Washington Families Standing Together (Approve 71) campaign, of which I was the manager. Every campaign has unsung heroes, and for this one, it was Josh Cohen.

We won narrowly and while no campaign wins because of the efforts of just one person, there is no question in my mind that Josh played a pivotal role. And it was the first time in our nation that comprehensive legal protections for LGBT families were secured through a referendum, a popular vote on a statewide ballot.

Josh worked day and night. He would often pick up dinner and come to my house, where we would work late into the night. It seemed to me he could do anything I asked.

His superpower was in his ability to manipulate data. The problem facing progressive organizations was that information was not stored uniformly between platforms. His talents allowed our systems to talk to each other, giving us an incredible edge. Josh developed innovative systems that allowed us to get out our vote. Nobody else was doing what we did. Laws and changes in Facebook and other platforms mean it will never be replicated.

I just wanted to share this, because I think credit needs to be given. The story about how ultimately marriage equality won is not complete if the stories of code jockeys are not told.

But more than this, Josh was a loyal friend. We talked a lot. He had a lot of ideas. I was always telling him no, though. He had a shirt made that he proudly wore that said "off message," because that's why I said no to many of his ideas. We would laugh about it, and I so appreciated that he took it in stride.

Josh also loved KISS, whose concert he dragged me to.

We were on different coasts and didn't speak much these past few years. I saw Josh last in August in New York, where he lived. We grew up in New Jersey just a mile apart, but we did not know each other. We had lots of cultural touchstones, though. We would always call each other by our last names, because that's what students did in East Brunswick, where we were schooled.

Rest well, Cohen. Your memory is for a blessing.