I assume you arrived at this blog after clicking a link in some email or post about Scott’s death. If not, I hope the previous sentence wasn’t too much of a shock.
Scott died in his home in Bath, England, on or about May 1st, 2018. I say on or about because his body wasn’t discovered until the 14th, so the actual date of death was pretty much a guess on the part of the forensic team and detectives.
Scott and I were good friends for over 30 years. We worked together on a lot of projects and I tested a lot of his software and wrote the documentation for quite a bit of it. I admired him for many things…not least of which was the way he overcame some fairly big obstacles on the way to being one of the best programmers in the world.
Scott didn’t acquire the world-wide fame of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs…he was never interested in building a big company. But among the people who used his code, and experienced his dedication to improving and enhancing it to meet their specific requirements, he was a hero.
Until something has been done once, it is often considered to be impossible. Climbing a 5.13 rock wall, reaching the top of Mt Everest, running a four-minute mile…these were all considered impossible at one time, and are now done frequently. The same can be said of Scott’s early development of real-time sonar acquisition and display technology. Or in simple terms, displaying a detailed view of the bottom of the ocean aboard the ship as you pass over it. There are now dozens of companies that offer gear to do this…but in 1986 there were none. It was impossible. But Scott had just learned how to program a computer (well…what passed for a computer back then…a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100). To Scott the computer was simply an extension of his brain that he could plug external sensors and storage devices into. This was a turning point in his life.
I had the good luck to meet him shortly after that. As I followed his career I often thought that his life was a story that should be shared.
Now that his life has ended, and there will be no new chapters, I want to follow through on that early desire. And I would like as much help as I can get from the other people who were fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough in a few cases) to know him. If you knew Scott, and are willing to share some stories, please contact me.
Please read About this Blog for more information about contributing stories.
Steve Lambert
op2slambert@gmail.com