Your not going to get banned for asking. We're actually glad that you did. We want people to know about him, and want to know about it.
To give you a short answer, Nick committed suicide, by carbon monoxide poisoning. It's hard for us to say why exactly, because nobody knows what he was feeling right at that moment. From what his family told us, he had severe self depression, which they told us he was known to hide it very well. That's why it came very unexpected, nobody on the team knew of this depression, and it was very sad to find out because so many of us could have helped him.
Since then, we've made it known that this project is dedicated in memory of him.