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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