Comments on: Don Killen RIP http://marknelson.us/2006/08/25/don-killen-rip/ Programming, mostly. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:05:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Yahia Chafik Chehadeh http://marknelson.us/2006/08/25/don-killen-rip/comment-page-1/#comment-831 Yahia Chafik Chehadeh Mon, 16 Oct 2006 03:42:33 +0000 /2006/08/25/don-killen-rip/#comment-831 It saddens me to hear this. Don was the first to open a door for me right after graduation in 1989. I had no experience at the time. My interview consisted of only discussing my graduation project (a 6800-Motorola based Heathkit communicating with the serial port of a PC). With no questions, he offered me a job at Greenleaf right then. I learned later that it was his style to trust people and give them the benefit of the doubt from day one. LANs were not common in small businesses yet, and he wanted everyone connected to an SCO Unix box. It was there that I met Mark, Ruby, Patrick and Tammy. Working there opened my eyes to what was happening in the field of networking and software and got me motivated to continue on to grad school. Don gave me my first C book. Several books later and having taught the subject many times in grad school, I still cherish that very same book in my bookcase. When C++ started gaining popularity outside of Bell labs and academia in early 1990, Don sent a memo encouraging everyone to learn it fast. Don used to place posts on a bulletin board in the hallway leading to the offices. One post that represented his philosophy at work reads "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. Author unknown". I made a copy of that post before I left Greenleaf. I am now copying from that very same copy hanging in my office. One time I was working with Mark, and we had a 1200 Hayes modem that went bad. We sent it to Hayes for repair under warranty. Hayes by mistake sent us back a 9600 one instead. Those used to run a little more than $1K at the time. Mark and I were very excited and wanted to try it out for a couple of days (v.32 was hot then). We told Don the story. He asked us to ship it back that same day and get the 1200. I remember during a staff meeting, Don mentioning a management consultant warning him against credit-card-based sales (there was no 128-bit encryption-based browsers at the time and sales were done over loosely-secured electronic bulletin boards or the phone. Credit-card fraud was booming). He insisted that honest businesses outnumber deceitful ones. Greenleaf business flourished at the time. If I regret one thing, it is not keeping in touch with Don as frequently as I should have. He will definitely be remembered as one of the early pioneers of PC software and a great educator. May he rest in peace. It saddens me to hear this. Don was the first to open a door for me right after graduation in 1989. I had no experience at the time. My interview consisted of only discussing my graduation project (a 6800-Motorola based Heathkit communicating with the serial port of a PC). With no questions, he offered me a job at Greenleaf right then. I learned later that it was his style to trust people and give them the benefit of the doubt from day one. LANs were not common in small businesses yet, and he wanted everyone connected to an SCO Unix box. It was there that I met Mark, Ruby, Patrick and Tammy. Working there opened my eyes to what was happening in the field of networking and software and got me motivated to continue on to grad school. Don gave me my first C book. Several books later and having taught the subject many times in grad school, I still cherish that very same book in my bookcase. When C++ started gaining popularity outside of Bell labs and academia in early 1990, Don sent a memo encouraging everyone to learn it fast.

Don used to place posts on a bulletin board in the hallway leading to the offices. One post that represented his philosophy at work reads “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives. Author unknown”. I made a copy of that post before I left Greenleaf. I am now copying from that very same copy hanging in my office.

One time I was working with Mark, and we had a 1200 Hayes modem that went bad. We sent it to Hayes for repair under warranty. Hayes by mistake sent us back a 9600 one instead. Those used to run a little more than $1K at the time. Mark and I were very excited and wanted to try it out for a couple of days (v.32 was hot then). We told Don the story. He asked us to ship it back that same day and get the 1200.

I remember during a staff meeting, Don mentioning a management consultant warning him against credit-card-based sales (there was no 128-bit encryption-based browsers at the time and sales were done over loosely-secured electronic bulletin boards or the phone. Credit-card fraud was booming). He insisted that honest businesses outnumber deceitful ones. Greenleaf business flourished at the time.

If I regret one thing, it is not keeping in touch with Don as frequently as I should have. He will definitely be remembered as one of the early pioneers of PC software and a great educator.

May he rest in peace.

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