IP: Obituary for Ole-Johan Dahl

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Thomas Bergin <tbergin@AMERICAN.EDU> (by way of Bernard A. Galler)
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 13:25:49 -0400
To: Interesting.People@umich.edu
Cc: farber@linc.cis.upenn.edu, sammet@acm.org
Subject: IP  : Obituary for Ole-Johan Dahl

Sent by JAN Lee.

----- Forwarded by Thomas Bergin/tbergin/AmericanU on 08/06/2002 12:09 PM
-----


>>
>>Professor Ole-Johan Dahl, University of Oslo, Norway, died on 29 June,
>>only 70 years of age. He was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, but
>>the disease seemed not to be life-threatening at first. Last fall,
>>however, the cancer took a turn for the worse.
>>
>>Ole-Johan Dahl is a member of the small group of scientists who will be
>>regarded as founders of their own field of science. His field was
>>informatics (US: computer science) and he won the two most prestigious
>>international prizes specific to that field: The ACM A.M. Turing Award
>>and the IEEE John von Neumann Medal. He was made Commander of The Order
>>of Saint Olav by the King of Norway in 2000, and received a number of
>>other signs of recognition
>>
>>When it became known that Ole-Johan Dahl was seriously ill, he received
>>letters and greetings from researchers all over the world, and also from
>>professionals who wanted to thank him for the programming tools they use
>>in everyday work.
>>
>>The British scientist C.A.R. Hoare - another founder of informatics -
>>wrote this about Ole-Johan Dahl: ``He is someone that I most admire as a
>>scientist and as an educator and as a person.  His whole life is a model
>>of how life should be lived, right through to the end.''  The US
>>scientist Dave Parnas wrote about the Turing prize: "Finally, they have
>>given this prize to people who have really made a difference.  In more
>>ways than I can ever explain, your work has changed the way people think
>>about software and write about software.''
>>
>>I got to know Ole-Johan early in the 1950s. We both worked at the
>>Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, he at the "Computing Office''
>>with me as his supervisor.  Both of us were under the direction of Jan
>>V. Garwick - the gifted and eccentric researcher who must be regarded as
>>"the father of informatics'' in Norway. Ole-Johan turned out to have an
>>exceptional talent for programming. In addition he developed other
>>characteristics suggesting a career as the absentminded professor. For
>>this reason some of his friends were astonished when he won the hand of
>>Tove, an exceptionally vital and wise wife. They had no reason to be,
>>since Ole-Johan on closer acquaintance turned out to possess a warm and
>>very vigorous personality. Their home, with two children and three
>>grandchildren, became a meeting place for cultural activities for
>>friends of Ole-Johan and Tove, to pursue their common interest in music.
>>
>>He had a strong sense of humour, and at the same time he could be very
>>outspoken in discussions, -- and that is an understatement. We shared
>>the interest in music. He was an excellent performer; he once considered
>>a career as a concert pianist, and was active in the chamber music life
>>in Norway. As for myself, I was only a passionate listener. One morning
>>after Ole-Johan had slept overnight at our home, my wife told me that
>>she was unhappy because Ole-Johan and I had become enemies the evening
>>before. I was shocked, and had to explain to her that she had listened
>>in on a perfectly normal conversation about a composer whom I loved and
>>Ole-Johan at that time regarded as a charlatan.
>>
>>Another true story from the 1960s at the Norwegian Computing Center,
>>when Ole-Johan and I developed the Simula languages and thus
>>object-oriented programming: A new employee came running down to the
>>switchboard office and shouted that two men were fighting in front of a
>>blackboard on the first floor. The switchboard operator stepped out into
>>the corridor, listened for a few seconds and said: ``Relax! It's only
>   >Ole-Johan and Kristen discussing Simula.''
>>
>>In 1973 came the famous book "Structured Programming'' by Ole-Johan
>>Dahl, Edsger Dijkstra and C.A.R. Hoare, which had an immense impact upon
>>the teaching of programming. From the 1970s on, the possibilities of
>>proving the correctness of programs interested him most. In this field,
>>too, he became an important researcher.
>>
>>In 1968, Ole-Johan Dahl was appointed to the first professorship of
>>Informatics in Norway. He built a team of colleagues who together with
>>him created a high quality education in the subject.  He also built a
>>Department with an exceptionally pleasant human atmosphere, influenced
>>by his generous personality. Few teachers are loved by colleagues and
>>students to the degree that Ole-Johan Dahl was.
>>
>>As for me I have very much to be grateful for. But, even if all of it is
>>important, it is the sharing of research, the new challenges every day,
>>the mutual inspiration, the steady building of new insights, and the joy
>>of understanding that count most when I think back on the fifty years of
>>our friendship.
>>
>>Kristen Nygaard
>>

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