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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Hi Jonathan:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Many thanks for posting the David Kahn obituary. He and I had been friends for over fifty years, and I owe him a particular debt for the great help he gave me by interviewing I.J. Good for me when
I was researching the Colossus in the 1970s. So I feel his loss very personally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">I will always remember the time, many years ago, when David invited me to his home on Long Island for the weekend. At the last moment he apologetically asked me if I minded spending the night at
his parent’s house, because David and his wife had another unexpected guest and had no room for me. When I arrived he took me to a splendid huge house fairly near to his, and I met his father – an impressive and forceful lawyer. His father was very friendly
and hospitable to me, though he made it clear that he thought David ought to be pursuing a more lucrative career than journalism (and cryptology).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">David showed me his cryptology library in his parents’ home on the evening of my arrival – he had no room for it in his own house. He urged me to explore it the next morning while I was awaiting
his coming to collect me, which I of course did. One of the items I found on the many yards of shelving was a large old-fashioned book-shaped metal ledger box. On opening it I found a pile of bound reports, on top of which was a typed letter to David, from
William Friedman, the famous cryptologist. It evidently dated from when David was a schoolboy and was a reply to a request from David. The letter congratulated David on his evident enthusiasm for cryptology and told him that he didn’t need to spend the money
he’d been given for a bicycle on the cost of purchasing one of Riverbank Reports. Instead he, Friedman, was sending David a complete set of these reports! (I’ve just checked and found – predictably – that these famed reports are detailed in a Wikipedia entry
- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverbank_Publications">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverbank_Publications</a>.)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">With this sort of encouragement, from such a source, it is no wonder that David spent much of the rest of his life authoring a set of splendid books on cryptology. And it is great to learn, from
the obituary, that David’s library is now housed at the NSA’s National Cryptologic Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Cheers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Brian Randell<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">—<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html</span><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:36.0pt">
On 11/02/2024, 19:13, "Members" <a href="mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org">
members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org</a> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/02/01/david-kahn-codebreakers-nsa-dead/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/02/01/david-kahn-codebreakers-nsa-dead/</a> <<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/02/01/david-kahn-codebreakers-nsa-dead/%3e">https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/02/01/david-kahn-codebreakers-nsa-dead/></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Stay sane, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Jonathan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Jonathan Coopersmith<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Professor Emeritus <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Department of History <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">Texas A&M University <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">College Station, TX 77843-4236 <o:p>
</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt">979.739.4708 (cell) <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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