Professor Daley Talking to the Class on September 11th.

The class was 'Theory Of Computation' as I remember, it was in the late afternoon. Most of the students were younger and were quite shocked. I was already set for a deployment with the National Guard but we all had to report anyway after seeing the news and I came to class straight from the Armory.

Professor Daley, with his long hair and beard, who looked like a guru or an old hippie, hadn't turned on the lights in the classroom yet, so we just had natural light.

We had just expected that he would start the class. Instead, he got very serious, maybe in a wise old grand-fatherly way, he said in effect:

"A lot of you are very concerned about what happened today. It reminds me very much of the day that President Kennedy was killed in Dallas. It is a tremendous shock to all of you who have never experienced a tragic national event like this before. Each of you has to process it in your own way. It will be very difficult to focus today, but maybe our studies will distract you a bit from today's tragedy."

I remember it had a very calming effect on everyone. It is the singular most memorable statement and moment I remember from any professor in all my days of higher education.

I'm paraphrasing of course, I could be way off from what he actually said verbatim, but 15 years later that is the sense and the mood of it, he may have also mentioned that the University decided not to cancel class in an effort to carry on and not give in to panic and that he supported this decision.

Watching Lighting strikes on TV antennas at Pitt Stadium while programming in the lab with my classmates.

First experiencing the satisfaction upon completing working programs or projects - a feeling I've yet to grow tired of.

Being the ACM President for two years and taking the Robotics course.

Dr. Novacky pulling his imaginary arrows out of his imaginary quiver to indicate that he had just given us yet another tool in the world of descrete math or logic or whatever he was teaching that day.

The friends I made throughout the department.

Professor Phil Kearns' sense of humor

Discovering timesharing after punching IBM cards. (I guess learning how to punch a drum card has to be up there as a memory of how far things have come).

I remember the many good times I had with other graduate students and faculty members there at Pitt. These include courses, lunchtime volleyball games, office visits with my advisor (KVS Ramarao), and many social gatherings. A highlight was a Halloween Party at Pete Sanderson's house, where Foster Provost, Paul Mullins, and Deb Whitfield all came in amazing costumes. (I'll leave it at that.)

Typing and retrying lines of code on punchcards late into the night and then saying a prayer as I fed them into the card reader ... Those were the days

Taking my first comp sci class in 1966 as an undergrad and getting my MS in computer science in 1972

Operating Systems Fundamentals Class

Writing Cobol Programs on Punch Cards and learning Pascal from Packy.

The friendships I made and the great faculty that helped along the way.

Playing volleyball in the "hole" behind Alumni Hall.

Interacting with my fantastic colleagues and the superb faculty

Every CS Day, and hanging out with fellow students in the CS help room