Gordon Bell has passed away

[elb]

Gordon Bell, influential computer designer and great supporter of computer history, passed away on May 17, 2024. John Mashey (a mover in computer history in his own right) announced it here:

JohnMashey (@JohnMashey@mstdn.social)

Gordon Bell was a DEC engineer from very early in DEC’s history (he worked on the PDP-1), with influence on most of their famous machines. In particular, he was an architect on their early machines, developed the PDP-11 Unibus, and was the director of the VAX project for some time.

Later in life he founded the Digital Computer Museum, which ultimately become The Computer History Museum. He also sponsored a number of prizes for academic and practical research through the ACM and other organizations.

He has been the topic of, or central to the topic of, many threads here on this forum, including:

• Gordon Bell's retrospective of the PDP-11 (1977)
• Some (more) Gordon Bell readings (writings!)
• More of Bell's books, Amost every kind computer before 1980
• The history of the Computer History Museum

May his memory be a joy and his spirit rest in peace.

[jhi]

Message from his family snagged from LinkedIn:

“Old computer pioneers never die, they just lose their physical bits.” – C Gordon Bell, May 2024

With great sadness, The Bell Family announces the loss of computer pioneer, C Gordon Bell, 89, on Friday, May 17, 2024 in Coronado, California. Since March 2024, Gordon had been battling with respiratory issues and with his wife, Sheridan, by his side, he finally succumbed to aspiration pneumonia.

Besides Sheridan, Gordon is survived by his son Brigham Bell and his wife Pamela Bell, his daughter Laura Bell and her husband Robert Schultz, stepdaughter Logan Forbes and her husband Stjepan Ilich, grandchildren Fiona Bell, Bridget Bell, Kolbe Schultz, and Stryker Schultz, sister Sharon Smith and her husband Gerald Smith, his former wife Gwendolyn Bell, and his beloved rat terriers Tux and Kizzy.

Gordon loved celebrating with his family at his stepdaughter’s wedding in December 2023, dancing to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Rod Stewart. He also gave his “Last Lecture” on “Bell’s Law of Computer Classes” at USC’s Bekey distinguished Lecture & Munushian Distinguished Lecture on April 1, 2024. Gordon was thrilled at the accomplishments of all the ACM Gordon Bell Prize recipients since 1987, for outstanding achievement in high-performance computing as well as the high schoolers recognized by the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize pursuing computing challenges outside of the traditional classroom.

Plans are underway for a “Celebration of Life” Service in Silicon Valley in August 2024.

Expressions of sympathy for The Bell Family can be sent to cgordonbellfamily@gmail.com