peter@world.std.com (Peter Salus) (09/26/90)
Tom Strong died a few days ago, after a battle with lung cancer and a brain tumor. In 1982, when the USENIX Association moved to the Bay Area from New York, Tom was part of the management company retained to manage the office (he was the Strong of Penny, Penny and Strong). When the Association decided to actually hire a staff of its own, Tom stayed on and acted as Executive Director for several months prior to the appointment of Jim Ferguson in 1985. From 1982 through the July/August 1990 issue, Tom has been the Managing Editor, the Production Editor and the typesetter of ;login:. Every USENIX workshop proceedings from Graphics 1985 through Mach (which has not yet appeared) passed through his hands. Computing Systems from its inception through 3.3 (which is in the mails) was set by Tom. Through my three years as Executive Director, I worked closely with Tom: membership renewals, election materials (for the 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990 elections), manual and tape order forms -- even the most trivial printing was treated with a seriousness and care that was lavished on major efforts like the journal. Tom was an outdoorsman who would periodically appear in my office with a fish; it was he who established the opening day of trout season as a USENIX holiday. The Association (and the UNIX community as a whole) will miss Tom. So will his widow and family to whom I, on behalf of the many thousands who knew Tom's work, offer sincere condolences. Peter H. Salus -- The difference between practice and theory in practice is always greater than the difference between practice and theory in theory.