Herschel Hayo

Less than a week after writing my article, Dennis M. Ritchie – a tribute I find myself writing another. This time it is much “closer to home” as it is a man I call my friend. Herschel Hayo was my boss’s boss so our friendship was not best buddies or anything. I’ve never been to his house nor he to mine and yet I think a great number of people in my position still think

of Herschel as their friend. He was that kind of person – no one was beneath him or unworthy of a smile and a chuckle.

Herschel was a good man and there are too few of them around. Even in casual conversation it was clear how much he thought of his family, and they of him. His wife, Barbara, would light up when she was with him after many years of marriage. That says a lot about a man.

We have many challenges here at work but Herschel was always level headed and practical about problems. I never saw him ‘blow up’ over a problem or lose his cool… it just wasn’t in his nature. He also had a way to make you feel important, even when you blew it. No mistake was the end of the world with him as long as you wanted to make it right and not do it again. He had the patience of Job, as the saying goes, and would let people have their say and actually listen even if he disagreed and then would come to a decision without shutting them out or making them feel small.

I’m going to miss seeing Herschel in the office every morning when we get coffee… seeing his perpetual smile… hearing his laugh… learning from his wisdom. I know the loss I feel, as big as it is, is nothing to what his family is enduring now. I pray peace on them that they can grieve and move on without letting this tremendous loss become depression or worse. All my love to them as they feel the loss of their love.

I don’t know if Herschel was saved or not – sadly conversation like that usually doesn’t present an opportunity at work with your bosses – but by outward appearances I’d say he was. I sure hope so because I’d really like to see him again one day.

Go in peace, my friend.

Everyone who has ever more than heard about C knows the only go-to source of all knowledge for it is the book “The C Programming Language”, known to C programmers as “K&R”. The R of K&R is Dennis M. Ritchie often known by his username dmr. Dennis Ritchie is also the creator of the C language.

Now, C had been around for years, but it had just taken a foothold in the computing world and was coming on like gangbusters. That’s when I got in on this wonder. C was created to help implement the Unix operating system and since it was so widely portable it is one of the reasons Unix exploded onto the scene as well.

You say you’re not familiar with Unix? Ever hear of Linux? Companies like Google and Amazon depend on it. Ever hear of Apple Mac computers? The entire line of Apple computers runs on an operating system that is based on a derivation of Unix. Unix and it’s descendants are so powerful, portable and compact that they are used in a lot of communications devices. You can bet that there is a form of Unix at many places along the Internet link you are using to read this! You never know, your home entertainment system may have a remote that runs a flavor of Unix!

Oh, did I mention that Mr. Ritchie also helped create Unix? He was one of a handful of techs from AT&T Bell Labs that built one of the best, most portable, and most secure operating systems ever, in my opinion and in that of many others.

All of this – the man, single handedly and otherwise, changed the computing world as we know it – and yet I heard from a friend that he had recently passed. Not even a mention on the news I encountered that week. Unfortunately the world lost another great visionary, Mr. Steve Jobs, that same week. I think this overshadowed Mr. Ritchie’s death as far as the news media was concerned. Taking nothing from Mr. Jobs – I love his product and am eternally grateful to him as well – but it was sad to see Mr. Ritchie’s passing go so quietly and unreported. I think it was a disservice to the memory and accomplishments of this major game changer in the computing world.

My heartfelt thanks to Msrs. Ritchie and Jobs. As a professional programmer I owe a lot of who I am and what I do to each of these great men who will be missed and remembered fondly by millions. Peace to you both.