IP: Huffman (of Huffman encoding) has died

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

SANTA CRUZ, CA--David A. Huffman, the founding faculty member of the
Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz,
and a pioneer in the
field, died at a local hospital on Thursday, October 7, after a 10-month
battle with
cancer. He was 74.

"Besides being a dear friend and a great colleague, David was one of the
grand men in
his field," said Patrick Mantey, dean of UCSC's Jack Baskin School of
Engineering.
"He made major contributions not only to the fields of computing and
information
science, but also to the development of the School of Engineering at
UCSC, so this is a
great loss."

A memorial service for Huffman is planned, but no details are available
at this time.

Huffman is probably best known for the development of the Huffman Coding
Procedure,
the result of a term paper he wrote while a graduate student at the
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). "Huffman Codes" are used in nearly every
application that
involves the compression and transmission of digital data, such as fax
machines,
modems, computer networks, and high-definition television.

Huffman joined the faculty at MIT in 1953. In 1967, he came to UC Santa
Cruz as the
founding faculty member of the Computer Science Department. He played a
major role
in the development of the department's academic programs and the hiring
of its faculty,
and served as chair from 1970 to 1973. He retired in 1994, but remained
active until
recently as an emeritus professor, teaching information theory and
signal analysis
courses.

Huffman made important contributions in many different areas, including
information
theory and coding, signal designs for radar and communications
applications, and
design procedures for asynchronous logical circuits. As an outgrowth of
his work on the
mathematical properties of "zero curvature" surfaces, Huffman developed
his own
techniques for folding paper into unusual sculptured shapes.

Huffman's accomplishments earned him numerous awards and honors. Most
recently,
he received the 1999 Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of
Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in recognition of his exceptional
contributions to
information sciences. He also received the Louis E. Levy Medal of the
Franklin Institute
for his doctoral thesis on sequential switching circuits, a
Distinguished Alumnus Award
from Ohio State University, and the W. Wallace McDowell Award. He was a
charter
recipient of the Computer Pioneer Award from the IEEE Computer Society,
and he
received a Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the
IEEE
Information Theory Society in 1998.

A native of Ohio, Huffman earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from
Ohio State
University at the age of 17. He then served in the U.S. Navy as a radar
maintenance
officer on a destroyer that helped to clear mines in Japanese and
Chinese waters after
World War II. He subsequently earned his M.S. degree from Ohio State and
his Ph.D.
from MIT, also in electrical engineering.

David Huffman is survived by his wife, Marilyn, of Santa Cruz; two
daughters, Elise and
Linda Huffman, both of Santa Cruz; a son, Stephen Huffman, of Santa
Cruz; a
son-in-law, Jeff Grubb, of Santa Cruz; a stepdaughter, Marti Homer
Kehlet of
Sacramento, her husband, Daret, and their daughter, Karsen; and a
stepson, Darin
Homer of Prunedale, his wife, Jane, and their son, Ryan.

At the family's request, contributions in David Huffman's name may be
made to the
Hospice Caring Project of Santa Cruz County or the American Cancer
Society, Santa
Cruz Chapter.