[Shacs] Backus dead at 82.

[Bronius Motekaitis]

>
> After flunking out of the University of Virginia<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_virginia/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
> Mr. Backus was drafted in 1943. But his scores on Army aptitude tests were
> so high that he was dispatched on government-financed programs to three
> universities, with his studies ranging from engineering to medicine.
>
> After the war, Mr. Backus found his footing as a student at Columbia
> University<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbia_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>and pursued an interest in mathematics, receiving his master's degree in
> 1950. Shortly before he graduated, Mr. Backus wandered by the I.B.M.
> headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York, where one of its room-size
> electronic calculators was on display.
>
> When a tour guide inquired, Mr. Backus mentioned that he was a graduate
> student in math; he was whisked upstairs and asked a series of questions Mr.
> Backus described as math "brain teasers." It was an informal oral exam, with
> no recorded score.
>
> He was hired on the spot. As what? "As a programmer," Mr. Backus replied,
> shrugging. "That was the way it was done in those days."
>
Sometimes all someone needs is a cause and an opportunity.

-bronius


On 3/20/07, Jonathan Hill <jonathan.f.hill at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> John Backus, the man who gave us Fortran and also the John Backus of
> Backus-Naur fame is dead at 82. There's a nice tribute to him in the obit
> column of the NY Times.
>
> * http://preview.tinyurl.com/ynn7a4*
>
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