Jim Gray - LA Times version

Peter Hornby • May 30, 2008

Look, I know it's hard to describe someone as multi-contributory as Jim Gray in one paragraph, but, really, I think Michelle Quinn, in her story in this morning's Los Angeles Times, might have done better than this:

The daylong event honoring the computer-science whiz who helped create automated teller machines will be part celebration, part science fair.

"The computer-science whiz who helped create automated teller machines"?  That's it?  Really?

I guess it's possible that Michelle Quinn's research led her to the Microsoft press release announcing Gray's 1999 Turing Award, which has this as its subheading

Gray's database research paved the way for ATM machines, computerized airline reservations and e-commerce. The Microsoft senior researcher this month received the prestigious A.M. Turing Award - the "Nobel Prize of computer science" - for his contributions.

The Times story is actually pretty good once you make it past the open.  It talks at some length about tomorrow's tribute symposium at Berkeley, and spends more time on Gray's wife Donna Carnes, and her life since his disappearance, than it does on his life and achievements.