I was definitely surprised and saddened to hear this news. Dusty was the driving force behind Classic, and he excelled at interacting with the community and fixing/changing content based on people's suggestions/input. I'd like to think I built a good report with him. He would always hear me out, and I knew that I could count on a problem being fixed because of him. He put so much effort into what he did (and all voluntary at that). He cared about Graal. He cared about the community. I think there's a lot of people who truly don't know just how much he did. But I do.
Graal is not in a good state right now. I don't know what's to become of it. But it's just not going to be the same without Dusty (and Coco too, for that matter).