The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
Tragic though this may be I'm not at all sure his death makes him notable? Paste (talk) 14:46, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. While the sourcing here could be improved - there isn't any now - he was a fire marshal at a widely followed sport who died in the course of his duties. This sounds like something that could be referenced to reliable sources, and Google News comes up with 30. Meets the biographical notability guideline. - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 14:59, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. I added a couple sources. - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 15:08, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Merge. Some of this information can be added to the mention of the subject's name in Autodromo_Nazionale_Monza #Deaths from crashes. Although racers who have died in racing accidents were often notable during their lifetimes, bystanders (race officials, spectators, etc.) are generally referred to in articles about accidents, rather than individually. Mandsford (talk) 15:04, 17 November 2008UTC)
Delete or Merge. Clear case of WP:BIO1E. The man is only notable because of the accident, so any useful information should be in the article about the accident (and other than his name and job, I don't see much need for anything else in that article). gnfnrf (talk) 15:36, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
keep as it sits now, it needs re-work because it seems to be just one event. However, I doubt seriously that the individual would only be notable for that one event and would rather see it kept and expanded (without prejudice for renomination in the future should it not be expanded).--Paul McDonald (talk) 16:09, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
What other claims to notability or coverage for reasons other than his death do you suspect might exist? gnfnrf (talk) 16:31, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Comment I'll concede that I don't know what a fire marshal does in racing. Given that this happened in 2000, I imagine that it would be difficult to find articles about Paolo Gislimberti from before his tragic death, but I'd be satisfied if it can be shown that fire marshals are well-known enough that some of them have name recognition or that the job in general is described in the media. However, I compare Mr. Gislimberti to Lyle Kurtenbach, a spectator at the 1987 Indianapolis 500, who was killed when a wheel flew into the stands. Mr. Kurtenbach's death is mentioned in several articles [1] but there is no article about Mr. Kurtenbach himself; I can see where WP:MEMORIAL would apply to this tragic accident, which bears mentioning in other contexts. Mandsford (talk) 21:30, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I have a better understanding of what a race marshal does now. Someone can correct me on this, but it looks like he's the guy who waves the checkered flag, among other things. Usually, that type of honor and responsibility is given to a person who has been at a raceway for a long time. I would still say that no individual marshall would be that well-known (Indy 500 fans might know the marshall at the IMS, but I don't). However, I can forsee that the article Race marshall could be spun back out of Marshal if someone wanted to do so, and that article could make mention of Gislimberti, Van Vuuren, etc. Mandsford (talk) 17:48, 19 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.