[Csci1301] Second (more detailed) Iverson Obituary

[John Howland]

Since we are learning and using the J language as we pursue the
great ideas of computer science I thought you might want to read
this obit which gives a bit more detail of the life of a rather
brilliant computer scientist.  It does not mention all the books
and technical papers written by Dr. Iverson.  Googling Dr. Kenneth E.
Iverson produces hundreds of references.

Some of the facts/dates are incorrect.  For example, he was
(according to IBM) and IBM employee from 1960 to 1980 and had
not yet written "A Programming Language" before going to IBM.

Searching the IBM, ACM and IEEE web sites gives more information
on Dr. Iverson's achievements.


Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 11:58:49 -0700
From: Roger Hui <RHui000 at SHAW.CA>
Subject: Kenneth Iverson Obituary

The Globe and Mail is Canada's national newspaper.
Jack Kapica is lead columnist and reporter for
globetechnology.com.  The following article
appeared in the Obituary Page of the Globe and
Mail on Moday.

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041025.wxobiverson25/BNStory/Technology/


___________________________________________________________

Kenneth Iverson, Mathematician 1920-2004

By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update

Kenneth Iverson was a mathematician whose intense fascination
with words and syntax led him to create an early programming
language that inspired a generation of computer programmers.

Born in Alberta in 1920 and educated in a one-room schoolhouse,
Mr. Iverson harboured little intention of going to college,
instead absorbing himself in textbooks his older brothers
brought home, eventually teaching himself calculus.  But the
Second World War intervened; he became a flight engineer
specializing in reconnaissance. When the war ended, a fellow
serviceman who had taken note of his love of learning, told him,
''If you don't go to university I'm going to go down and beat
your brains out,'' his widow, Jean, recalls.

So when he was demobilized, Mr. Iverson enrolled at Queen's
university, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics.
He continued his education at Harvard University, where he
graduated with a Master of Arts and, in 1954, a doctorate
in applied mathematics.

He stayed at Harvard to teach mathematics and there developed
a system of notation to describe to students a method of
handling large groups of numbers.  He published a book on it
in 1962, titled A Programming Language, a name that was
subsequently contracted to APL.

International Business Machines Ltd. took note of what he
had done, and in 1962 lured him from Harvard to develop
APL as a language for use in its new IBM System 360
mainframe computers. He took three colleagues along with
him to IBM -- Larry Breed, Roger Moore and Dick Lathwell
-- who were later awarded the Grace Hopper Award for the
subsequent implementation of APL based on the principles
laid down by Mr. Iverson.

As the computing revolution picked up speed, APL was not
relegated to a dark corner of history, but embraced by
a growing number of programmers who were in awe of its
"elegance," a word the community uses to describe an
especially simple but powerful language. APL's popularity
lay in its ability to manipulate large amounts of data,
therefore making it ideal for programming databases.

Although it is compact, simple and easy to learn, APL's use
of symbols can initially intimidate novice programmers.
"You could write a program using APL 10 times faster than
with any other languages," recalls Lib Gibson, an executive
with Bell Canada who worked with Mr. Iverson in his later
years at I.P. Sharp Associates Ltd., a Toronto-based
time-sharing company.

Initially, it was bundled with what are considered to be
the world's first microcomputers, made in Toronto by
MCM Computers Ltd., in 1974 -- at least two years before
Apple introduced its desktop machine.

APL maintained its devotees well into the 1980s, when it
become a "niche language," said his son Eric. During his
later years Mr. Iverson developed an advanced version
called J -- more formally, the J Notation for the APL
language -- that could run on a variety of computers.

But he will remain known for APL. For more than 35 years
he managed to turn it into a successful commercial property
and, in the process, won the Harry Goode Award in 1975,
the A.M. Turing Award in 1979, the IEEE Computer Pioneer
Award in 1982 and the National Medal of Technology in 1991.

His ability to create such languages came from his
"sheer enjoyment of language and words," recalls his daughter
Janet Cramer. "He read dictionaries like people read novels."

Mr. Iverson thought it was important that language, both English
and mathematics, could communicate clearly and concisely,
she said, and he was always finding relationships between things.
"If there was anyone who would have come up with the Universal
Theory of Everything, it would have been him."

Mr. Iverson was no pedant, however. A gregarious man, he attracted
many young people around him. "He was a natural teacher," said
his widow Jean. "He couldn't change a light bulb without showing
the kids how it was done."

In fact, he and his wife looked after many children, particularly
during the years Jean worked in a youth advocacy program.
The Iversons had four children of their own -- sons Eric, Paul
and Keith and one daughter, Janet -- but still found room for
some of Jean's troubled children. Two of them -- Robin Dick and
Sherry Natusky -- ended up staying at the Iverson home, and are
now part of the Iverson family.

Mr. Iverson became a Fellow at IBM, a signal honour given only
to its most prized employees. When he retired in 1980, he moved
back to Toronto, where he worked at I.P. Sharp until 1987.

For the rest of his life he dedicated himself the exploration of
computer languages.

"He didn't stop thinking or working in 1987, his son Eric said,
"but continued his aggressive research until he died."

And that's how he died. He was sitting at his computer at home,
working on the J language, when he was felled by a stroke.

Kenneth Iverson, mathematician, was born on Dec. 17, 1920,
in Camrose, Alta. He died on Oct. 19, 2004. He was 83.

-- 
_______________________________________________________________
John E. Howland       url: http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jhowland/
Computer Science    email: jhowland at ariel.cs.trinity.edu
Trinity University  voice: (210) 999-7364
One Trinity Place     fax: (210) 999-7477
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