Last year I wrote a fan letter of sorts to Professor McCracken, thanking him for his ForTran book, which I credited as my inspiration for what became my life work. (Ref: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1710523" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1710523</a> )<p>He replied to my letter, saying:<p>===<p>"I love your story!!! Warms my heart like little else. I am absolutely delighted to have had a hand in your choice of career, given that you are pleased with the choice.<p>"By golly, I too think my books were clear! I'm still teaching. Not Fortran, but beginning CS. When I get frantic I pick out my first Fortran book, or a later one, and look for a good example. It's usually there!<p>"Makes me think of writing a book in a modern language. For about two seconds. The energy isn't there any more. Love to teach, but writing a book is a very much bigger deal than it was back then, and I don't see how I could hack it. Well, I am 79.<p>"Thanks a million for your mail. Definitely made my day."<p>===<p>I'm glad today that I got to do that. RIP, Professor.
I was privileged to have him as a Professor. We would have lunch sometimes and discuss programming paradigms and modern web techniques. He'll be missed.
I never knew him or even knew of him until now. But it must be grand to pass on like that after a long meaningful life that impacted many others. I look forward to exploring his works.
Do people really "die peacefully in their sleep" or is this a euphemism? I can't imagine, given how painful (eg) a heart attack is, that you could sleep through it.
I'm a City College Student. I've taken 2 courses with Prof. McCracken and spoken with him privately on several occasions as well. He was an amazing man. A truly kind heart who knew how to bring out the best in people. Teaching was something he was very passionate about, he was still teaching courses last spring, well past the point of retirement. Dan McCracken knew how to make a difference to people and that was his real gift.<p>He could instruct in technical subjects, but he was already over that point of his life when I got to meet him. He had written his books, done his service with the ACM, made his contributions to the profession. What he devoted himself to later in life was cultivating people. He knew exactly how to nudge a student in the right direction to make them press onward. It worked for me. I don't think I would have made it through my freshman year without his encouragement.<p>I'll miss him. He was a wonderful person, a great teacher, and a warm presence. We should all be so lucky to as to know someone like him.
I'm sitting here looking at the brown, dog-eared old McCracken Fortran IV book from my high school comp sci class (1978). What magic it was to conceive of a program, cut it onto punched cards, suck the stack through a card reader, and then see my output appear, line by line, on the dot-matrix printer. Thank you, professor, for your contribution to computer science and for inspiring me to find the work I love.