David Wheeler died yesterday.
I got to meet David once, about 5 years ago. I was at a meeting in our Cambridge lab, and we had a reception with our lab staff and the faculty of the Cambridge computer science department-- which is, by the way, the oldest computer science department in the world.
He was, as you can imagine, a very quiet, unassuming, downright grandfatherly man. I was standing on one side of the room talking with Chuck Thacker (a legend in his own right), and he was on the opposite side chatting with some folks. I was musing to Chuck about the amazing history represented by the people in the room, and he told me that I didn't know the half of it; he then pointed out David to me, saying "See that guy over there? That's David Wheeler. He invented the subroutine."
I nearly dropped my wine glass. Of course, when you reflect upon it, someone had to invent the thing. It really is quite remarkable that the field of computer science is still so young that the inventors of most of its seminal constructs are still alive. I've been very fortunate in that I've met several of them, and enjoyed meeting every one.
Later I struck up a conversation with Professor Wheeler, a conversation I remember quite clearly. The Brits have a very clever invention for cocktail receptions; it's a little U-shaped piece of plastic that clips onto the side of a plate. Its purpose: to hold your wine glass, allowing you to easily hold both your plate and wine glass in one hand while you serve food onto your plate, eat, or shake hands with your colleague. I have never seen these devices outside of the UK, and in fact that reception was the first time I had ever seen them. I remarked to Professor Wheeler as to what a clever little device it was, and he responded "Yes, and I'm never sure whether they're going to have them at these events, so I brought my own" (fishing it out of his pocket).
David Wheeler: brilliant pioneer of computer science, good conversationalist, and seasoned reception-attendee. He will be missed.
8:49:53 PM  ; ;
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