[SIGCIS-Members] In memory of Thomas Kurtz

[Evan Koblentz]

I invited Kurtz to give a keynote at VCF East in 2012. He graciously 
accepted. It was a thrill to meet him, because I grew up on BASIC (via 
Apple II, C64, etc.) and still use it today!

My biggest mistake during 15 years leading VCF was that I didn't have 
his lecture recorded. :(


On 11/21/24 12:54 PM, Annette Vee via Members wrote:
> Hello, SIGCIS, Folks here likely saw this, but I didn't see it come 
> through (apologies if I missed it). Thomas Kurtz, who developed BASIC 
> and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) with John Kemeny, passed 
> away last week, at 96. NY Times
> 
> Hello, SIGCIS,
>
> Folks here likely saw this, but I didn't see it come through 
> (apologies if I missed it). Thomas Kurtz, who developed BASIC and the 
> Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) with John Kemeny, passed away 
> last week, at 96.
>
> NY Times obit 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/technology/thomas-kurtz-dead.html__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkfUm2Trg$>:  
> “At Dartmouth, long before the days of laptops and smartphones, he 
> worked to give more students access to computers. That work helped 
> propel generations into a new world.”
>
> Dartmouth obit 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://faculty.dartmouth.edu/artsandsciences/news/2024/11/remembering-computing-legend-thomas-kurtz__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkLzniqRg$>: "Dartmouth 
> had the largest open-stack library in the world at that time in a 
> college of this type, and the concept of open-stack computing, that 
> was my idea," Kurtz said. "Thatʼs one of the few ideas I had that 
> Kemeny didnʼt have." [he was modest, and deeply admired Kemeny!]
>
> Computer History Museum obit 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-memoriam-thomas-e-kurtz-1928-2024/__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkCHfO8vM$>: 
> "DTSS was the earliest successful, large-scale timesharing system, a 
> remarkable achievement. [...] DTSS was unveiled on May 1, 1964, along 
> with BASIC. By that fall, hundreds of students were exploring BASIC on 
> the 20 terminals around campus."
>
> People on HackerNews 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42141761__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkwDXhxCo$> 
> are paying their respects by mentioning the influence of BASIC on 
> their lives and careers.
>
> I interviewed him in 2017. He was so generous, and as brilliant as 
> you'd expect. He wrote me a memo on "Grammatical Simplifications in 
> BASIC." He loved memos--was an academic mathematician at heart, even 
> at 89! I wrote about the interview here: 
> https://annettevee.substack.com/p/thomas-kurtz-basic-and-computing 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://annettevee.substack.com/p/thomas-kurtz-basic-and-computing__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkKzYgbNs$> and 
> also in 2023, in a critical code studies article, "BASIC FTBALL and 
> Computer Programming for All 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/17/2/000696/000696.html__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYknsvlGdU$>” 
>
>
> Other great work on BASIC that many here already know:
> The Birth of BASIC documentary 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYPNjSoDrqw__;!!DLa72PTfQgg!McndxL0dk_LxAVU6xByk0RDdCZxkP_0gxv-3e4i9qqJ-evnW8ZXPNBeMgWBTgmH0yjspw-elNAYkgEEkeKU$>: 
> from the 50th anniversary of BASIC, in 2014.
> Rankin, J. (2018) A People's History of Computing in the United 
> States. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
> Montfort, N. et al. (2014) 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1));: GOTO 10, 
> Cambridge: MIT Press.
>
> Annette
>
> Annette Vee
>
> Associate Professor of English
>
> University of Pittsburgh
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Evan Koblentz

New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Senior Writer, Office of Communications and Marketing
- Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing
- Advisor, NJIT Lego Club

evank at njit.edu
(973) 596-3065
https://web.njit.edu/~evank
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