I learned this evening that my friend Fran Allen passed away today. She was 88 years old.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_E._Allen

Fran was another IBM fellow… Actually one of the first ones that I knew. She was the first woman IBM fellow… And the first woman to win the touring award… Which is as close to a Nobel prize as there is in computer science. Her specialty was optimizing compilers… She Was a great mathematician and love thinking about algorithms. She also loved people. We work together quite a bit on programs related to the vitality of our technical community and IBM. She had a great sense of humor. She was a great advocate for folks in our technical community… And always had time to mentor young upstart’s (like me)….… I remembered today that I had run into Fran several years ago and IBM headquarters in Armonk. At that time she already seemed “old” To me… Though I’m sure she was younger than I am now.. She was walking with a cane.… I assumed it was something like arthritis or some other complication of getting older.… I asked her about the cane… And learned that she had twisted her knee helicopter skiing in British Columbia…

I’m tempted to say “they don’t make them like that anymore”… But I actually hope that’s not true. Fran wouldn’t have wanted that

Nite all, night te sam

-me