An AltaVista Founder, Paul Flaherty, Passes Away

[rustybrick]

Danny has more details at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060320-190257

Sad news that Paul Flaherty, one of the founders of AltaVista, passed away on Friday. I don't have more details at the moment, other than that there was to be a wake and funeral for him today. The news came to me from Jeff Black, a former general manager of AltaVista. I'll postscript more below as I hear. FYI, Richard Selzter has a nice guide to some early AltaVista alumnus here. An old home page for Paul is here. Chris Sherman has some early history of AltaVista here.

We owe Mr. Flaherty our deepest respect and gratitude.

[ShoeMoney]

Rest in peace

[gabs]

Agreed RIP

[dougharris]

Imagine being chair of a department trying to get a newly aquired (old) PDP-11/34 running, and suddenly a fresh young face pops his head in the door of the lab and says "Is that a computer?". You know you have a willing "victim" immediately, and that particular victim was the individual we all have come to know and admire as Paul Flaherty, and the time and place was in the summer before he arrived at Marquette University as a freshman in 1981.

Paul was wonderful to have around as a student, and colleague, and as a friend. How much we have lost with his passing is incomprehensible, but how much we gained in so many ways while he was with us is also hard to comprehend. My memories of being around him are mostly that he was always learning, about anything you can imagine, and was totally dedicated to his profession in every way.

Paul will never be forgotten by anyone who knew him, or by those who benefited from his work.

Douglas Harris
Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science
Marquette University