One of my ham friends from childhood, Bob Lee, died yesterday. Bob moved to town when I was a little kid, and brought with him tons of engineering books, equipment, and stories from his days at Aerojet General in Sacramento, California. For about ten years, every Saturday morning, my father and I would visit Bob. He was always ready to teach me something, or listen to my latest ill-informed theory, either at his house or by telephone.

Bob was an inveterate tinkerer, first with radio and later with small computers and finally software. Bob had the first micrprocessor I ever used, a Fairchild F8, and he had it hooked to a Model 33 TeleType. I remember studying the machine instruction card, trying to think of what to do with it. I think we finally added two bytes together, and were sure it wasn't working, becuase it was done before the carriage had returned and the paper had fed a line.

Bob had retired from Aerojet after brain surgery left in paralegic, and eventually the ensuing infirmities caught up with him. I miss those Saturday morning visits.

- posted by Leigh @ 20:58 z