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Thomas E. Kurtz

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Thomas E. Kurtz
Kurtz, c. 1970s
Born
Thomas Eugene Kurtz

(1928-02-22)February 22, 1928
Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
DiedNovember 12, 2024(2024-11-12) (aged 96)
Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S.
EducationKnox College (BA)[1]
Princeton University (PhD)
Occupations
Known for
Spouses
Patricia Barr
​
​
(m. 1953; div. 1973)​
Agnes Seelye Bixler
​
(m. 1974)​
Children3
Awards1974 AFIPS Pioneer Award
1991 IEEE Computer Science Pioneer Award

Thomas Eugene Kurtz (February 22, 1928 – November 12, 2024) was an American computer scientist and educator. A Dartmouth professor of mathematics, he and colleague John G. Kemeny are best known for co-developing the BASIC programming language and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System in 1963 and 1964. These innovations made computing more accessible by simplifying programming for non-experts and allowing multiple users to share a single computer, transforming how computers were used in education and research.

For his role in creating BASIC, the IEEE honored Kurtz in 1991 with the Computer Pioneer Award,[2] and in 1994, he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.[3]

Early life and education

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Thomas Kurtz was born on February 22, 1928, in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, to Helen Bell Kurtz and Oscar Christ Kurtz. His father worked for the Lions Clubs International headquarters, holding various roles. From an early age, Kurtz developed an interest in science.[4]

Kurtz enrolled at Knox College and developed an interest in mathematics, eventually taking every offered course in the subject. Encouraged by his advisor to pursue a career in statistics, he switched his major to mathematics during his senior year. Kurtz graduated from Knox College in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.[4]

His first experience with computing came in 1951 at the Summer Session of the Institute for Numerical Analysis at University of California, Los Angeles. Kurtz went on to acquire his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1956. His thesis was on a problem of multiple comparisons in mathematical statistics,[2] and his advisor was John Tukey.[5] Kurtz's mathematical interests included numerical analysis, statistics, and computer science.

Career

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Dartmouth College

In 1956, he was recruited to Dartmouth College by John G. Kemeny and joined the Mathematics Department, where he taught statistics and numerical analysis.[5][6]

From 1963 to 1964, Kurtz and Kemeny, working with a team of students, led the development of the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) and the BASIC programming language. DTSS allowed multiple users at separate terminals to share the processing power of a single machine, replacing a system of exclusive reservations. Kurtz and Kemeny prioritized simplicity, ensuring that DTSS was accessible to users without technical backgrounds.[6][7][8][9]

From 1966 to 1975, Kurtz served as Director of the Kiewit Computation Center at Dartmouth,[10] and from 1975 to 1978, Director of the Office of Academic Computing. In 1979, he and Stephen J. Garland started a Computer and Information Systems master's program at Dartmouth. After the program ended in 1988, Kurtz returned to teaching, retiring in 1993.[11][12]

Kurtz also served as Council Chairman and Trustee of EDUCOM, as well as Trustee and Chairman of NERComP, and on the Pierce Panel of the President's Scientific Advisory Committee. Kurtz also served on the steering committees for the CONDUIT project and the CCUC conferences on instructional computing.[12]

In 1974, the American Federation of Information Processing Societies gave an award to Kurtz and Kemeny at the National Computer Conference for their work on BASIC and time-sharing.[13] In 1991, the IEEE Computer Society honored Kurtz with the Computer Pioneer Award,[2] and in 1994, he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.[14] In 2023, he was inducted as a fellow of the Computer History Museum, with the award presented by Bill Gates.[15]

BASIC

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The approachability of BASIC and time-sharing began what the PC and the internet took to a whole new level.

Bill Gates, in a 2023 video for Kurtz's induction as a fellow of the Computer History Museum[15]

As part of the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, Kemeny and Kurtz created the programming language BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The first BASIC program ran on May 1, 1964, at 4 a.m. At the time, neither Kemeny nor Kurtz saw this as the start of something monumental. Their main hope was that BASIC would help students in understanding and engaging with the computers they were using. While Dartmouth College held the copyright to BASIC, they made it freely accessible to anyone interested in using it, and Kemeny and Kurtz made little money from it. The name for the language originated from Kurtz's wish to have a simple acronym that meant something as well. Kurtz states that: "We wanted a word that was simple but not simple-minded, and BASIC was that one."[10]

The theme that BASIC was for the average computer user was stressed by Kurtz. In an open letter, he reiterated upon past statements that BASIC was invented to give students a simple programming language that was easy to learn, as all the current languages of the time were dedicated to professionals. He went on to say that BASIC was for people who did not want to dedicate their lives to programming.[16]

Although BASIC was widely regarded as a success, some critics considered it to be confusing for longer programs, especially when the "GO TO" statement was used to jump between parts of a program. In addition, because the language was not designed as a structured language, it made it difficult to split programs into separate parts to improve maintainability.[10]

BASIC standards were created in the 1980s for the ECMA, and ANSI with their versions being released in 1986 and 1987 respectively.[17] In 1975, when Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a version of BASIC for the Altair 8800, one of the earliest personal computers, it helped launch the personal computer industry.[18]

Kurtz's work on BASIC was recognized by the IEEE as part of their milestone program, which marks historic places for human innovation from around the world. A commemorative plaque was placed on February 22, 2021.[19]

True BASIC

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In 1983, Kemeny, Kurtz, and four former Dartmouth students established True BASIC with the goal of introducing a modern commercial version of BASIC that would address the fragmentation caused by numerous incompatible dialects of the language, which were developed for early personal computers with limited memory and hardware-specific limitations. True BASIC featured structured programming constructs such as a do-loop and else-if and support for multiple operating systems.[20]

Initially backed by $2.3 million in investment, the company struggled with profitability. Disagreements with its marketing partner, Addison-Wesley, led True BASIC to take marketing in-house, but sales still fell short of expectations. The company had annual revenues above $1 million in two years, according to the CEO in 1997, but the rise of integrated BASIC implementations, particularly from Microsoft, and declining demand for standalone programming tools limited its market reach.[20] A 2004 interview noted sales of about 3,000 copies of True BASIC annually, primarily to high school students and hobbyists who had learned the language decades earlier.[21]

Personal life

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Kurtz was married to Patricia Barr from 1953 until their divorce in 1973. They had three children: twin sons Daniel Barr and Timothy David in 1954 and daughter Beth Louise in 1957.[22] In 1974, he married Agnes Seelye Bixler, to whom he remained married until his death.[6][7]

Kurtz died in Lebanon, New Hampshire, on November 12, 2024, at the age of 96.[5][6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Thomas E. Kurtz". IEEE Computer Society. 1995. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Thomas E. Kurtz". IEEE Computer Society. April 27, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  3. ^ "ACM Fellows Award". Fellows.acm.org. Archived from the original on January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Narins, Brigham, ed. (2002). "Thomas Eugene Kurtz". World of Computer Science. Vol. 1. Gale Group. p. 337. ISBN 978-0-7876-5066-7. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "In Memoriam: Thomas E. Kurtz, 1928–2024". CHM. November 14, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d Rosen, Kenneth R. (November 16, 2024). "Thomas E. Kurtz, co-creator of BASIC programming language, dies at 96". The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Langer, Emily (November 20, 2024). "Thomas Kurtz, co-inventor of BASIC computer language, dies at 96". Washington Post. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  8. ^ Kaisler, S.H. (2020). Mainframe Computer Systems: The General Electric Corporation. Historical Computing Machine Series. Cambridge Scholars Publisher. p. 315. ISBN 978-1-5275-6116-8. Retrieved November 16, 2024. The Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS) implementation began in 1963 by a student team under the direction of Kemeny and Kurtz. The GE-225 arrived on campus in February 1964. With DTSS, it began operation on May 1, 1964.
  9. ^ Gordon, M. Bull (1980). The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (PDF). Ellis Horwood Ltd. and John Wiley & Sons. On 1st May 1964 at 4 am, the first program in BASIC ran successfully, barely one and one half months after delivery of the hardware.
  10. ^ a b c Slater, Robert (February 15, 1989). Portraits in Silicon. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. pp. 241–249. ISBN 978-0-262-69131-4.
  11. ^ Schweitzer, Katha (February 15, 1985). "Knox College notes 148th anniversary". The Rock Island Argus. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Thomas E. Kurtz". Computer Pioneers. 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  13. ^ "Transcripts of 1974 National Computer Conference Pioneer Day Session". Dartmouth Time Sharing System. Dartmouth College. 1974.
  14. ^ "ACM Fellows Award". Fellows.acm.org. Archived from the original on January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
  15. ^ a b "2023 Fellow Award Ceremony". CHM. November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  16. ^ "Thomas E. Kurtz − History of Computer Programming Languages". Cis-alumni.org. May 1, 1964. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  17. ^ "Small Basic Computer Games: New 2010 Small Basic Edition". Computerscienceforkids.com. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
  18. ^ "Bill Gates at Harvard". Harvard Magazine. October 15, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  19. ^ "Celebrating the Birth of BASIC—and Beyond". Dartmouth Campaign. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  20. ^ a b Jurgens, Rick (June 1, 1997). "Keeping True to BASIC". Valley News. pp. 37, 41.
  21. ^ Hirsch, J.M. (April 29, 2004). "Dartmouth's BASIC, Power Behind First PC, Turns 40 on Saturday". Valley News. Associated Press. pp. 1, 6.
  22. ^ "Thomas Eugene Kurtz Obituary". Valley News. November 14, 2024. Retrieved November 21, 2024 – via legacy.com.
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