Rod, Thanks for the very nice note about Bill. I too will miss him. Please express my condolences to Julie and the rest of his family. Bob > On Jan 25, 2020, at 8:34 PM, Rodney Van Meter <rdv=40sfc.wide.ad.jp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > This morning I talked to Julie Manning, Bill's wife. Bill died early > Saturday morning, at home in Oregon. Most of you know Bill was > waiting for a new heart. He would perhaps have gotten one next > month. I guess the old one just wouldn't hold out long enough. > > I first met Bill in about 1995, when I returned to ISI after my first > stint in Japan. He had taken a position in the Los Nettos project at > ISI, a regional network project in the days when Internet service and > operations work was still heavily shared between business and > academia. Bill brought an operator's eye to the project, often seeing > things differently from the researchers in the group. > > Bill kept the most erratic hours of any non-student I've ever met. He > might be in the office at 2am or at 2pm, either was equally likely. > I'd ask, "Bill, what time did you come in?" He'd reply, "10am." "I > was here before that, and you were already here, it must have been > earlier." "Greenwich Mean Time." > > And in one phase of life, "Bill, where do you live?" "Seat 4A." He > would speculate about his average altitude and speed over the previous > month. > > And, like any good geek, Bill had a spectacular collection of tie-dye > t-shirts. He came by the look honestly: growing up in the Bay Area, > he had actually snuck into Grateful Dead rehearsals held in a barn, > and had traveled as a deadhead for a while. > > At ISI, we called Bill "the bad idea fairy". He always brought a > slightly-off-kilter view of technical problems, which triggered > endless discussions of fascinating, if usually implausible, > alternatives. > > He had the most broad-ranging musical tastes of anyone I knew, and > would eat almost anything (though, like me, he didn't drink alcohol). > I was often envious of his eating and musical experiences. He > certainly lived life to its fullest. > > On one occasion, I recall, we were eating lunch in a Thai restaurant > for the first time. Bill called for the food "the way you'd make it > in Thailand". The waiter went back into the kitchen and came out with > a few raw Thai chiles. Bill ate one whole, without even breaking a > sweat. The owner of the restaurant immediately came out to see who > was eating them. Pam became a friend to our group. > > On other occasions, when the waiter asked for his order, Bill would > point to another person at the table, and say, "I'll have what she's > having." "Well, what is she having?" "I don't know, I haven't heard > her say." Once in a while, he would point to someone else in the > restaurant and say, "I'll have what they are having." It was funny > and sometimes disconcerting, which was very Bill, and it was also his > way of making sure he himself was eating (and thinking and doing) as > broadly as possible, without getting stale. > > Bill worked in a bakery before joining Texas Instruments and > accidentally falling into computer networking. (When we first met, he > was commuting between Houston and L.A.; Julie and the kids were still > in Houston.) I believe he attended a series of colleges but never > finished his bachelor's degree. Just a few years ago, however, Jun > Murai convinced him to get a Ph.D.; this took clearing administrative > hoops to demonstrate that Bill's life experience matched that of a > bachelor's degree, which it certainly did. I was honored to be on his > Ph.D. committee. I literally created a "trouble ticket" accounting > scheme to track change requests for his thesis. > > Bill was a valued member of the WIDE Project here in Japan. He worked > with the DNS root operations group here, and participated in as many > WIDE meetings as he could. He also came to Keio University's Shonan > Fujisawa Campus when he was in Japan, and one of the best things about > Bill was how seriously he took the students and their work, treating > them like adult colleagues. > > Bill had friends on all seven continents, and for all I know on the > International Space Station, as well. He was loved by us all. > > Julie does not plan to have a funeral immediately, so there is no need > for flowers or the like. The family may do a memorial service in Utah > in the spring. > > He was a unique and wonderful human being. And a good friend. > Rest in peace, Bill. > > —Rod > > Rodney Van Meter > Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies > Keio University, Japan > rdv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > >> On Jan 26, 2020, at 13:06, Jorge Amodio <jmamodio@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> >> So sad :-( >> >> On Sat, Jan 25, 2020 at 9:12 PM Randy Bush <randy@xxxxxxx> wrote: >> we have lost another one >> >
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