In Memory of, December 2013

The New York Times recently published an obituary for Willis H. Ware, Ph.D., who passed away at the age of 93. Ware, PA D ’41, was “first to try to engineer many of the components that would become vital for modern computers” as part of a team that developed a computer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, in 1946.

In addition, Ware worked at the RAND Corporation for more than 55 years and had this to say about the effect computers would have on society, “The computer will touch men everywhere and in every way, almost on a minute-to-minute basis,” he wrote in 1966. “Every man will communicate through a computer, whatever he does. It will change and reshape his life, modify his career and force him to accept a life of continuous change.”

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In November, Ben Taskar, Ph.D. (CA G ’98), tragically passed away at the age of 36. He was Boeing Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. He previously spent six years as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Click here to learn more about the funeral and to support the “Ben Taskar Family Benefit Fund” for his wife and young daughter.

“When a 30-something person dies unexpectedly, leaving behind a spouse and a young child, it scarcely matters that he or she was one of the generation’s leading computer scientists,” said Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in computer science & engineering at the University of Washington. “Ben was that, though, a leading figure in machine learning who made a tremendous impact on our program in his short time here.” Read the obituary for more information

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According to sources, “the oldest active professional engineer in the state of Alabama” recently passed away at the age of 94. Trenton E. Toland, P.E. (AL B ’52), worked at Thompson Engineering since 1995, after a 40-year career at the Corps of Engineers. Read more about Toland’s life as told by his mentoree and fellow structural engineer from the Alabama Media Group.

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