contributed articles
he was an
unmanageable
free spirit in
the workplace
who could write
prodigious amounts
of code and even
more prodigious
research reports.

offer insightful comments. I routinely sent him my work in draft form and was always amazed by the breadth of knowledge reflected in his comments. They usually took the form: “Have you looked at System XYZ?; the people behind it looked at the problem you are considering.” XYZ would, of course, be an effort I had never heard of.

Jim was a mentor to many of the younger people in computer science and traveled widely to universities and research centers to interact with researchers. He was always willing to give service to the field. I remember vividly the creation in 2003 of the Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR, www.cidrdb.org). We (Michael and David) became frustrated that SIGMOD routinely turned down our practical papers. Reaching the boiling point, we asked Jim to help start a new conference as a venue for such work, and Jim, as always, was willing to help. Moreover, the night before the opening session of the first CIDR conference in Asilomar, CA, we realized we did not have a data projector for showing PowerPoint slides. Rather than risk compromising the success of the conference, Jim made the five-hour round trip back to San Francisco to get a projector, returning to the Asilomar Con-

ference Center at 3 a.m. That was Jim.

Anecdotes reflecting his special character are legendary. He refused to conform to social norms; we never saw him wearing a coat and tie. He was an unmanageable free spirit in the workplace who could write prodigious amounts of code and even more prodigious research reports. It was reported at the Tribute that he had asked IBM to transfer him from its Thomas J. Watson Jr. Research Laboratory in Yorktown, NY, to its San Jose Research Laboratory in California to work on System R. When his boss refused, Jim quit on the spot and drove cross-country to be hired by the San Jose Lab. He loved to take people sailing on his boat, and it seems as if half the database community had this pleasure. Equally legendary are anecdotes of his backpacking and hiking trips in the Sierras.

 

Jim was a true scholar and friend. We will forever try to live up to the standard he set by his behavior. We can speak on behalf of the entire computer science community that we miss this mountain of a man every day. Our hearts and thoughts go out to his wife, Donna, his daughter, Heather, and his sister, Gail, who must deal with the ambiguous loss of Jim up close and personal.

 

photo Graph Courtesy of Joel bartlett

Michael Stonebraker ( [e-mail]) is an adjunct professor in the electrical engineering and Computer science department at the massachusetts institute of technology, Cambridge, ma, and the chief technology officer of vertica systems, inc., and byledge Corp.

David J. De Witt ( [e-mail]) is a technical fellow in the microsoft Jim Gray systems lab, madison, Wi, and the John p. morgridge professor, emeritus, in the Computer sciences department of the university of Wisconsin, madison.