I just read his selected bibliography on wikipedia ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Martin_(author)#Publications" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Martin_(author)#Publicat...</a> ) and I somehow never realized that all these foundational works of computer science were written by the same guy. "Design of real time computer systems" in particular is part of the bedrock of modern computing.
His donation to Oxford funded some of my early postgraduate work back in 2009.<p>I actually had an opportunity to meet with him a couple of weeks after I began the work, but not knowing who he was (or being particularly computer-history savy at the time) I didn't push it. In hindsight (not just today, but generally) I've always regretted not realizing who he was at the time.
I'm really sad to hear about this. Dr Martin was an amazing man. His work helped change our world, but few people have heard of him.<p>Most of all, I respect his philanthropy. He cared about cost-effective philanthropy. He focused on the most important problems facing humanity -- I think he more or less bankrolled the field of existential risk research.
This is terrible, sad news. "The Wired Society" is a milestone in technology writing—James Martin predicted today's world with eerie prescience, all the way back in the 1970s. I read that book as a child, and I still go back to it and marvel at how right he was.<p>Rest in peace, Dr. Martin. You made a dent in the world.
"Dr. Martin’s lifeless body was found floating in the waters ... at this time there does not appear to be any suspicious circumstances."<p>What?
Oxford Martin School pays tribute to Dr. James Martin on its website's front page:<p><a href="http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/</a>