I learned yesterday that one of my mentors has passed.

Jack Schwartz was a professor of mathematics at NYU’s Courant Institute when I was there in the mid 1960’s. He founded the Computer Science department at NYU.

Jack also devised one of the first time-sharing systems, SHARER, to which he invited some brilliant NYC high school students to develop. Many of those students went on to important careers in the field.

But what I remember most about Jack was how warm and generous he was, even tho his reputation as a mathematician, as John Markoff  puts it in his obituary in today’s New York Times, was fearsome.

The three years I spent working in the computer center at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (CIMS), from 1965-1968, were the most important three years in my life (so far). It started my career in computer programming for science and engineering. We were all quite young, and Jack, and the director of the CIMS Computer Center, Max Goldstein, were our “father figures”.  And as such, we mark his passing.