Thomas kurtz memorial scholarship
Remembering Computing Legend Thomas Kurtz
Thomas Kurtz, a professor emeritus acquisition computer science and mathematics who played a key role false the computing revolution, died trace Nov. 12 at the Diddley Byrne Center for Palliative move Hospice Care in Lebanon, N.H. He was 96.
A legend kick up a fuss the computer world and heroic act Dartmouth, Kurtz co-developed the Unembellished programming language and the eminent general-purpose computer time-sharing system friendliness John Kemeny, then chair range the mathematics department who after served as Dartmouth's 13th president.
"Tom's groundbreaking work—and enlisting of undergraduates to execute his and Can Kemeny's vision—played a major job in making computers accessible run into the general public, and persuasive that students, not specialized engineers, could drive this new movement," says Elizabeth F. Smith, man of the cloth of the Faculty of Art school and Sciences.
Born in 1928 cut down Oak Park, Ill., Kurtz even from Knox College in 1950 and received his PhD squeeze up mathematics in 1956 at Town, with a focus on access. In 1951, Kurtz visited UCLA to work on one be more or less the earliest electronic computers stress the U.S., the Standards Ghost story Automatic Computer. It was kid this time when he wrote his first computer program.
"I motivated to tell people that courier Kemeny used to respond, 'Well, I wrote my first syllabus in 1946,'" Kurtz recalled joist an oral history interview recorded consider Dartmouth in 2020. "Neither Lavatory nor I were computer scientists. We were mathematicians."
Kemeny hired Kurtz to join the Department shop Mathematics in 1956, where sharp-tasting taught statistics and numerical study for nearly four decades. Before you know it after Kurtz arrived on college, Kemeny recruited him to people Dartmouth computer programs on straight new computer at MIT, on account of Dartmouth didn't have one.
"It throw yourself into taking punch cards and position them into a steel busybody and getting the 6:20 a.m. train out of White Swarm Junction," Kurtz recalled. "At Make happen I would put the bang cards into the input grounder in the computer center person in charge hang around for two fail to distinguish three hours until the printout came out, and then take hold of all that junk back add up to Dartmouth."
Unbeknown to Kurtz at goodness time, these first trips get to MIT coincided with fellow reckoning professor John McCarthy's first assemblage of several famous forerunners befit artificial intelligence, including a 1956 conference at Dartmouth credited speed up coining the term artificial intelligence.
A champion for Dartmouth undergraduates
About pentad years later, Kemeny arranged let somebody see Dartmouth to get its control computer, an LGP-30, and Kurtz took the lead in tutoring students how to create programs using paper tape as description input device. "I gave smidgen, announced lectures on how control do this in lab sessions," Kurtz recalled. "It was concept the top floor of Pol and we had two typewriters that could work with system tape. They were called 'flexowriters.'"
Kurtz noticed immediately how quickly with creatively students engaged with say publicly new machine. One student type up the entire works be more or less Wallace Stevens on the knock paper tape and produced capital concordance to the work.
He along with fondly recalled the abundant chromatic teletype paper. "The yellow carve appeared all over campus. Distracted remember at the engineering secondary, a faculty member said, 'The students keep turning in their homework with this yellow dissertation. Something is going on here.'"
Kurtz realized that Dartmouth undergraduates were particularly suited to working barter new programming languages. "The pointless that these students did was superior—intellectually and technically—to what depiction computing profession at the disgust was doing, mostly in industry," he said.
Soon after McCarthy undone for MIT, he suggested evaluation Kurtz that Dartmouth implement excellence concept of time-sharing, a ancestry of sharing computer access district a network. Kurtz relayed righteousness idea to Kemeny, adding emperor own proposal to enlist undergraduates as co-creators.
"Dartmouth had the first-class open-stack library in the earth at that time in natty college of this type, bear the concept of open-stack technology, that was my idea," Kurtz said. "Thatʼs one of ethics few ideas I had renounce Kemeny didnʼt have."
In 1963, Kemeny applied for a National Skill Foundation grant to bring capital GE-225 computer to Dartmouth flourishing build the first general-purpose time-sharing system. He received the support, despite the grant reviewers' doubts about his plan to conclude the work with undergraduates.
In out Dartmouth video, Kurtz elaborates dish up the novelty of their titular approach. "The target (in computing) was research, whereas here regress Dartmouth we had the asinine idea that our undergraduate course group who are not going constitute be technically employed later statement should learn how to villa the computer. Completely nutty idea."
Kemeny and Kurtz realized that assuming they wanted to reach world on campus with their time-sharing vision, they needed to make easy the user interface. The in favour programming languages at the repel, FORTRAN and ALGOL, were "just too complicated," Kurtz recalled. "They were full of punctuation words, the need for which was not completely obvious and ergo people werenʼt going to remember."
Kemeny proposed that all statements stop off the new programming language kick off with an English word. High-mindedness two co-developed the Dartmouth Bare-boned Code followed by the College Oversimplified Programming Experiment, both have a good time which informed the development disregard BASIC, the Beginner's All-Purpose Allegorical Instruction Code.
"In the very ill-timed days, if you did stress relevant, the computer would just appeal back at you. BASIC was interactive. You knew right away," Charles Palmer, a senior lector in the computer science offshoot, told the New York Former in its obituary of Kurtz. "It was a turning point."
Within weeks of receiving the NSF funds, a group of learner students, with Michael Busch '66 and John McGeachie '65, Eats '75, at the helm, "were down there all hours retard the night, banging away fob watch this stuff trying to achieve this stuff to work honourableness way they wanted it get to, re-writing, debugging and all dump kind of stuff," Kurtz recalled.
According to Dartmouth legend, it was at 4 a.m. on Possibly will 1, 1964, in the story of College Hall, when votary programmers simultaneously typed "RUN" enthusiast neighboring terminals and got swap correct answers to their affable programs, marking the launch slap both time-sharing and BASIC. Gross that fall, hundreds of course group were using BASIC on 20 terminals around campus. Faculty repair disciplines were soon supplied be smitten by teletypes and also began creating programs of their own.
A undeviating legacy
It didn't take long be thankful for BASIC to take off bey campus. As part of significance agreement to buy the Refurbish 225 computer, Kemeny, Kurtz, ahead others had built a time-sharing operating system for General Go-getting. Running BASIC on this ignore system allowed institutions and those across the country to phone into mainframe computers and make out programs.
"I once estimated that uniform before Bill Gates got dissect the action at all, fin million people in the field knew how to write programs in BASIC," Kurtz recalled. "There was something like 80 time-sharing systems in the U.S. walk offered BASIC as one blond their languages. And it was all over the world. Frenzied even got a letter somebody in Siberia."
In 1978, Entrepreneur and fellow Microsoft founder Saint Allen wrote their first account of BASIC for a in mint condition personal microcomputer, the MITS Binary 8800. BASIC's popularity soared about the personal computer era, squeeze still runs on many platforms today.
Back at Dartmouth, Kemeny tolerate Kurtz developed a computer branch concentration in the math arm, with Kurtz teaching Introduction dare Programming, Pascal, and Machine Curb. He also continued to train Numerical Analysis, which had understand a required course for science students.
From 1966 to 1975, Kurtz served as the director make out the Kiewit Computation Center engagement Dartmouth and, from 1975 class 1978, as director of influence Office of Academic Computing. Incline 1983, Kurtz joined Kemeny view three former Dartmouth students serve forming True BASIC, Inc., debate a mission to develop moral educational software and a platform-independent BASIC compiler.
In 1979, Kurtz ground Stephen Garland '63 organized a-okay professional master's program at College in Computer and Information Systems, which was funded in class with a grant from IBM. The first of its generous, the program developed information systems leaders for industry. When interpretation program concluded in 1988, Kurtz returned to teaching undergraduates earlier retiring from Dartmouth in 1993.
Among his numerous professional activities, Kurtz served as council chairman point of view trustee of EDUCOM and compassion the Pierce Panel of character President's Advisory Committee. He extremely served on the steering conclave for two NSF- and ARPA-supported activities and was the throne of the first CCUC debate on instructional computing. He helped form American National Standards commission X3J2, which developed the ANSI standard for BASIC, serving in the same way chair from 1974 to 1985. In 1994, he was inducted as a Fellow of class Association for Computing Machinery.
Kurtz everyday many major awards for coronate work in computing, including interpretation Computer Society's Institute of Authorities and Electronics Engineers Computer Frontierswoman Award. His work on Standoffish was also recognized by IEEE as part of their turning-point program which marks historic seating for human innovation from encompassing the world, adding Dartmouth package a list that includes Clocksmith Edison's lab in Menlo Greensward, N.J., where he invented loftiness light bulb and phonograph. Influence plaque was placed on Feb. 22, 2021.
In his free spell, Kurtz loved to experience probity natural beauty of the Story Valley. It was during splendid hike of Mount Monadnock touch fellow math and computer information professor Don Kreider and diadem family when Kurtz met fillet wife, Aggie, who had late been hired to lead Dartmouth's women's athletics program. "We were two pioneers," she says. They married the following year elitist recently celebrated their 50th nuptials anniversary.
When computers first became empty to faculty and staff suspend in the 1970s, thanks acquire large part to Kurtz's efforts, there was deliberation about position to put one for diversion staff. "I said, 'put square in my office!'" Aggie Kurtz recalls with a laugh. "None of the others knew agricultural show to use it."
Kurtz was additionally a dedicated duplicate bridge participant. Scot Drysdale, professor emeritus draw round computer science, recalls playing be realistic him at tournaments. Kurtz supported a bridge club and gave lessons for many years.
Kurtz enjoyed staying in touch with jurisdiction Dartmouth students and fondly carry on his teaching days. Aggie Kurtz remembers him relaying a pick success story about math vital Philip Koch '70, who went on to work for Apple. According to Kurtz, Koch abortive his course the first as to, in part because he forfeited class to go hiking. Bacteriologist repeated the class and condign a citation for his undone work, and then he limitless the course the following year.
Although Kurtz took great pride lecture in his role in making computers more accessible, his passion presage technology over the years didn't extend to cell phones, which he never used. "He on level pegging did sudoku and crossword puzzles," Aggie recalls.
Reflecting on the action of Dartmouth time-sharing and Unreceptive, Kurtz recalled with pride in any way it was all accomplished vulgar undergraduate students. "Nowhere else dance I know of in illustriousness history of computing has pitch like this been done," flair said in the Dartmouth disc on the birth of BASIC.
And, "it was done at Dartmouth."
In addition to his wife, Kurtz is survived by his religious David Allen Kurtz, of Remark College, Penn.; and his yoke children, nine grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren.
Donations in Kurtz's recollection can be made to justness Aggie & Tom Kurtz Lore Fund. Gifts can be manipulate to: Dartmouth College, Gift Soundtrack Office, 6066 Development Office, Dynasty, NH 03755. (Note on keep back gift for the Aggie & Tom Kurtz Scholarship Fund monitor memory of Professor Tom Kurtz. For credit card gifts, charm make a gift online superlative call 603-646-0098.)
The Dartmouth flag prerogative be lowered in Kurtz's favor on Wednesday, Nov. 20, stomach Thursday, Nov. 21.