Colin Earl Obituary

Colin Raphael Earl
05/24/1958 - 06/20/2025
Colin Raphael Earl, born May 24th, 1958, in Oxford, England, died unexpectedly on June 20th, 2025. He was 67 years old, born to Quentin Stephen Earl and Rosemary Blake-Jolly Earl. The family is shocked and deeply saddened by his passing.
Colin was preceded in death by his father, Stephen Earl, and his brother, Justin Earl. He is survived and missed by his wife of 27 years, Bridget Conrad; son, Christopher Jason Earl Conrad; brothers, Jocelyn and Tristram Earl; mother, Rosemary Earl; mother in-law, Barbara Conrad; sisters in-law, Satori and Jeannie Earl; cousins, Sebastian, Cordelia, and Austin Earl; nephew and nieces, Rupert, Madeline, Zoe, and Emerson Earl; as well as his two cats and his horse.
Colin was a loving husband, father, employer, and friend. He was fiercely intelligent, curious, gregarious with friends, loyal, and extremely witty. He took genuine interest in other people; their experiences, their dreams, their lives. Colin was easy to be around, with a zest for life. He supported friends and family in their times of need and loved a good debate. He loved to tell a good - and bad - joke, always with a devilish grin. In his retirement, he deepened his long-time interests in poetry, math, and physics, performing at open mic nights and studying quantum physics with professors. He studied poker and chess extensively, inculcating a deep appreciation of the latter game in his son from an early age.
Colin had a rich leisure life, maintaining a strong connection to the natural world. For decades, he hiked weekly at Land's End in San Francisco, leaving the paved trail almost immediately and spending hours traversing lightly-traveled "goat trails," rocks, and the beach, where he would meditate to the sound of crashing waves. He took up vipassana meditation in his forties and meditated twice a day for the rest of his life. He loved long snorkeling sessions and kayaking, savoring the rarer moments where he saw turtles, dolphins, rays and more.
Colin attended the Dragon School in Oxford and Kings School Canterbury, before majoring in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London, where he graduated in 1981. In his early 20s, he took a computer software job in the United States, claiming (prematurely!) that he knew Fortran, and learning it over the weekend before arriving in the U.S. After years in southern California, he eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived for the rest of his life.
After working in California for different tech companies, in 1990, Colin took a leap of faith and founded his own software company, which would eventually become Agiloft. He built and led his entirely self-funded company for almost 25 years alongside his wife Bridget as the company's second in command. After offering a variety of custom applications, the company really took off when it pivoted to focus on Contract Management. Colin sold a minority stake in Agiloft to FTV Capital in 2020 and fully exited when the company was acquired by KKR in 2023.
Colin was immensely proud to have built a successful company, but it was most meaningful to him that he had provided a welcoming place and a fulfilling, rewarding career for his employees. Colin hired people from all backgrounds who he felt were smart and likely to excel, regardless of their prior experience. He saw potential in people who didn't recognize it in themselves and helped them to reach it.
Many employees have told the family that Colin's decision to take a chance on them had a dramatic, positive impact on their lives. He loved to go to bat for employees dealing with difficult customers. He cultivated a culture where employees were listened to and respected. Colin was particularly proud that he waited to sell the company until doing so would provide a significant windfall to its foundational employees. He wanted them to be able to take their own leap of faith, just as he had decades earlier.
Colin played an astoundingly significant role in the lives of so many. He will be sorely missed. May he live forever in our memories and our hearts.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Palo Alto Event Center at 3:30 pm on Sunday, July 13th.