IP: AP on Postel WITH THEIR PERMISSION

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 09:49:31 -0500
From: Christopher Connell <cconnell () ap org>
Subject: Re: IP: Re:  The first of the giants
To: farber () cis upenn edu


The Associated Press ran a 500-word obituary by its Washington-based
technology writer, Ted Bridis, on Oct. 17. That story appeared in scores
of U.S. newspapers and more around the world.

AP does not routinely allow posting of its full stories on e-mail
distribution lists, but we'll make an exception for this one because of
the deep interest in Jon Postel's life and untimely death. Here it is:

Copyright 1998 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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^AM-Obit-Postel,500<
^Postel, Internet pioneer, dies after heart surgery<
^By TED BRIDIS=
^Associated Press Writer=
¶   WASHINGTON (AP) _ Jon Postel, the Internet pioneer who wielded
enormous influence managing technical details of the global computer
network, has died of complications from heart surgery in Los Angeles,
friends in Washington said Saturday. He was 55.
¶   Postel, considered by the Clinton administration to be a crucial
player in the future of the Internet, died Friday night while recovering
from surgery to replace a leaking heart valve, said Vint Cerf, a senior
vice president for MCI Worldcom Inc. who worked closely with Postel.
¶   The death also was announced Saturday at an Internet conference in
Barcelona, said Bill Semich, the president of .nu domain, another
Internet company.
¶   Postel's death comes at a critical juncture for the Internet, with
the federal government in the midst of largely turning over management
of the worldwide network to a non-profit group that Postel helped
organize.
¶   Though Postel worked behind the scenes and was hardly known outside
high-tech circles, his role as director of the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority allowed the Internet to match unique numerical addresses for
computers on the global network with its millions of Web addresses, such
as www.ap.org.
¶   So powerful was Postel that "The Economist" once dubbed him "god" of
the Internet.
¶   "Jon was a very private person and didn't seek the limelight at
all," said Cerf, who attended high school with Postel in California. "He
preferred to exercise his stewardship role in a very quiet but competent
way."
¶   "Being famous never drove Jon," agreed another longtime friend,
David Farber, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "He had
tremendous influence, people respected his intellect."
¶   Earlier this year, Postel drew sharp criticism but demonstrated his
influence when he redirected half the Internet's 12
directory-information computers to his own system. He told federal
officials afterward he was running a test to see how smoothly such a
transition could be made.
¶   A researcher at the University of Maryland at College Park, which
controls one of those computers, told The Washington Post: "If Jon asks
us to point somewhere else, we'll do it. He is the authority here."
¶   Cerf said Postel underwent a heart-valve replacement in 1991, but
the replacement value started to leak about 10 days ago. He was quickly
hospitalized for surgery and was recovering when he died suddenly.
¶   "One minute he was alert and laughing about a joke, and the next
minute he was gone," Cerf said. "It was very fast."
¶   Postel, who was unmarried with no children, was intensely private.
When a recent trade publication profiled him and told him readers were
interested in his personal life, he answered: "If we tell them, they
won't be interested anymore."
¶   Cerf said Postel is survived by a brother, Mort Postel, who lives in
Los Angeles with his wife.