Tribute to Bill - Revision history

Will.schroeder at 19:38, 28 January 2020

2020-01-28T19:38:19Z

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	It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.		It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.

			=== [https://lmi.med.harvard.edu/people/tina-kapur Tina Kapur] ===
			I remember well the first time I interacted with Bill; I was new to General Electric Healthcare and he a distinguished scientist there. In a room full of men with C*O titles, when I wasn’t even sure if Bill remembered that we had met once before when I was a student, he greeted and introduced me to the others as the new genius on the team that they all must surely know about already. That was just the first of my many encounters with Bill’s strategic generosity and sponsorship, and I am glad that I was able to keep working with him through one excuse or another for the last 15 years. During this time, he often dealt with difficult topics by invoking his hero, Yogi Berra. I learned from the Bear via Bill that “if you come to a fork in the road, take it.” When I learned of Bill’s passing I could hear him say “Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”

	=== [http://cs.swan.ac.uk/~csbob/ Bob Laramee] - How I Met Bill ===		=== [http://cs.swan.ac.uk/~csbob/ Bob Laramee] - How I Met Bill ===
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	And lest you think that Bill was a career-driven overachiever, he had a whimsical side that was manifested through his joy of computing. For example, he and some GE coworkers spent many months designing and implementing a AI-based horse-racing system (this was back in the day before the current AI frenzy). This system required manual entry from published racing forms (before the information was downloadable), and used a backward-chaining inference engine to pick winners. Needless to say, Bill didn’t strike it rich, although he did generate a wealth of fun doing it.		And lest you think that Bill was a career-driven overachiever, he had a whimsical side that was manifested through his joy of computing. For example, he and some GE coworkers spent many months designing and implementing a AI-based horse-racing system (this was back in the day before the current AI frenzy). This system required manual entry from published racing forms (before the information was downloadable), and used a backward-chaining inference engine to pick winners. Needless to say, Bill didn’t strike it rich, although he did generate a wealth of fun doing it.


	=== [https://umaine.edu/scis/people/terry-s-yoo/ Terry Yoo] ===		=== [https://umaine.edu/scis/people/terry-s-yoo/ Terry Yoo] ===

Will.schroeder at 19:35, 28 January 2020

2020-01-28T19:35:03Z

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	It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.		It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.

	=== [https://www.kitware.com/will-schroeder/ Will Schroeder]		=== [https://www.kitware.com/will-schroeder/ Will Schroeder] ===
	The first time I met Bill it was through his code. I was a recent hire at GE Power Systems in the Gas Turbine division. After falling in love with numerical computing in my junior and senior years at the University of Maryland, I was working at GE as a simulation analyst, helping engineers design, diagnose, and improve turbine blade designs. Early on it became clear to me that visualization was the critical interface between the computer and human, and it was an exciting field in which to work. However the tools at that time were awful. I was able to get my hands on a doctored version of MOVIE.BYU (modified by Bill) and a series of raster and vector plotting editing, painting, and display tools which ran on emerging hardware like the RasterTek. Seeing that code written by Bill, written in C, was a revelation: it was clear that there was a genius behind the work and my enthusiasm for computing was greatly inflamed.		The first time I met Bill it was through his code. I was a recent hire at GE Power Systems in the Gas Turbine division. After falling in love with numerical computing in my junior and senior years at the University of Maryland, I was working at GE as a simulation analyst, helping engineers design, diagnose, and improve turbine blade designs. Early on it became clear to me that visualization was the critical interface between the computer and human, and it was an exciting field in which to work. However the tools at that time were awful. I was able to get my hands on a doctored version of MOVIE.BYU (modified by Bill) and a series of raster and vector plotting editing, painting, and display tools which ran on emerging hardware like the RasterTek. Seeing that code written by Bill, written in C, was a revelation: it was clear that there was a genius behind the work and my enthusiasm for computing was greatly inflamed.

Will.schroeder at 19:34, 28 January 2020

2020-01-28T19:34:38Z

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	=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa-Marie_Rhyne Theresa-Marie Rhyne] ===		=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa-Marie_Rhyne Theresa-Marie Rhyne] ===
	It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.		It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.

			=== [https://www.kitware.com/will-schroeder/ Will Schroeder]
			The first time I met Bill it was through his code. I was a recent hire at GE Power Systems in the Gas Turbine division. After falling in love with numerical computing in my junior and senior years at the University of Maryland, I was working at GE as a simulation analyst, helping engineers design, diagnose, and improve turbine blade designs. Early on it became clear to me that visualization was the critical interface between the computer and human, and it was an exciting field in which to work. However the tools at that time were awful. I was able to get my hands on a doctored version of MOVIE.BYU (modified by Bill) and a series of raster and vector plotting editing, painting, and display tools which ran on emerging hardware like the RasterTek. Seeing that code written by Bill, written in C, was a revelation: it was clear that there was a genius behind the work and my enthusiasm for computing was greatly inflamed.

			Soon after I met Bill, and began a long relationship that lasted over 35 years. This journey took me to work side-by-side with Bill at GE Research, and then within several open source communities like VTK and ITK. What was astounding about Bill’s working style was that he would always first welcome newcomers like me, encourage them, and through gentle wit and suggestion point us in the right direction. Then, when the work began to gel, he would start using it, or dogfooding it as we used to say, to prove it out and point the way towards future improvements and additions. There was no sitting still with Bill, he continuously moved forward to make the world a better place. And the best part of it is that he took many of us along for the ride. This sense of purpose, fun, and adventure was a rare gift and I am convinced that his approach led to the formation of many successful open source and other technical communities. This is something for which Bill will not receive much credit, but if you look closely you can see his fingerprints all over them.

			And lest you think that Bill was a career-driven overachiever, he had a whimsical side that was manifested through his joy of computing. For example, he and some GE coworkers spent many months designing and implementing a AI-based horse-racing system (this was back in the day before the current AI frenzy). This system required manual entry from published racing forms (before the information was downloadable), and used a backward-chaining inference engine to pick winners. Needless to say, Bill didn’t strike it rich, although he did generate a wealth of fun doing it.


	=== [https://umaine.edu/scis/people/terry-s-yoo/ Terry Yoo] ===		=== [https://umaine.edu/scis/people/terry-s-yoo/ Terry Yoo] ===

Will.schroeder at 19:32, 28 January 2020

2020-01-28T19:32:56Z

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	=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa-Marie_Rhyne Theresa-Marie Rhyne] ===		=== [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa-Marie_Rhyne Theresa-Marie Rhyne] ===
	It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.		It was 1990 when I first met Bill Lorensen. He was co-author of a forthcoming book on "Object-oriented modeling and design" and was involved with the 1990 Workshop on Volume Rendering. It was a time of large workstations where Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Sun Microsystems (Sun) were the leaders. I was a Unisys employee responsible for running the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's Scientific Visualization Center. I needed help on the appropriate workstations to purchase so that EPA's visualization activities could grow beyond GIS modeling, often performed on Data General workstations, into 3D time series animations. He advised me to go with both SGI and Sun workstations along with accurately predicting that we would eventually need a powerful SGI workstation to keep the center running. The SGI Oynx workstations would be introduced in 1993. Bill knew I was a newbie when it came to workstations so he gave me enough coaching to help me appear to have some hardware knowledge of the situation. I had to stand up to specialized consultants in supercomputing who knew far more about high performance computing, but not necessarily computer graphics, than I did. Bill helped me do that. He was a master of both technology and kindness. He encouraged me rather than making me feel foolish as I evolved into a technical leader. I will always remember his thoughtfulness in that regard.

			=== [https://umaine.edu/scis/people/terry-s-yoo/ Terry Yoo] ===
			Bill was always curious, but at the same time he was ever grounded, practical. Those were traits that
			I always appreciated about Bill. I met Bill at the second IEEE Conference on Visualization in San Diego
			1991 where he presented what remains to this day the most comprehensive scientific visual analysis
			on putting on golf greens. GE had recently acquired NBC, and they wanted Corporate Research
			involved in developing tools and ideas for their new investment. Bill and his team created GE’s View-
			a-Putt software, combining his loves both of golf and of computing. The process involved surveyors
			transits, hand-held radios, and simulations running on overheated workstations in broadcaster’s
			trailers. Bill was there, fretting over his simulations, dejected when they failed, yet gleeful when they
			worked.

Will.schroeder at 19:08, 28 January 2020

2020-01-28T19:08:04Z

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	Bill was a major influence in the areas of computer graphics, visualization, medical computing, and software process. He was loved by many throughout these communities. Here we have captured some of the many tributes contributed by friends and ~~family~~.		Bill was a major influence in the areas of computer graphics, visualization, medical computing, and software process. He was loved by many throughout these communities. Here we have captured some of the many tributes contributed by family, friends, and co-workers.

	=== [https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/troyrecord/obituary.aspx?n=william-edward-lorensen&pid=194848174 Obituary] ===		=== [https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/troyrecord/obituary.aspx?n=william-edward-lorensen&pid=194848174 Obituary] ===

Will.schroeder at 14:06, 27 January 2020

2020-01-27T14:06:15Z

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	in later years contributing an extensive compendium of examples and code. He was also a driving force in converting the original book into Markdown and LaTeX (with Andrew Maclean and other community members). Bill could always be counted on to provide praise		in later years contributing an extensive compendium of examples and code. He was also a driving force in converting the original book into Markdown and LaTeX (with Andrew Maclean and other community members). Bill could always be counted on to provide praise
	and nag scofflaws who were slow to add software tests, or correct errors on the VTK dashboard.		and nag scofflaws who were slow to add software tests, or correct errors on the VTK dashboard.

			=== [[Memorabilia\|Memorabilia]] ===
			This subsection is a collection of articles, photos, video, and other contributed content.

	=== David Banks ===		=== David Banks ===

Will.schroeder: /* James Duncan */

2020-01-22T11:48:34Z

James Duncan

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	Visualization and Computer Graphics 10, no. 4 (2004): 371-384.		Visualization and Computer Graphics 10, no. 4 (2004): 371-384.

	=== ~~James~~ Duncan ===		=== [https://seas.yale.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/james-duncan Jim Duncan] ===
	Bill and I served on a number of review and advisory panels together, but my favorite one was the scientific advisory group for		Bill and I served on a number of review and advisory panels together, but my favorite one was the scientific advisory group for
	Gabor Szekely’s Co-ME grant/project at ETH - Zurich. We met in Zurich or elsewhere in Switzerland every year for (I think) a full 10 years and it was a real highlight for me each time. Ferenc Jolesz was also on it, which always made things colorful as well. The thing that most stuck out for me was not just how fun and interesting it always was to talk with Bill at dinner and hear his viewpoints on things, but how he could really ground the discussions and keep everyone on track with regards to what the science and technology was really doing and what questions were being addressed in terms of really helping people & society and advancing healthcare. I remember him once in a while implying that he was the only one in the room without a Ph.D. or a M.D., but of course this never mattered one bit, as he was often the one person who had the most real insight as to what was going on with a system design or an algorithmic approach— and we all knew and appreciated this. His legacy will certainly live on through marching cubes and a number of other endeavors, but what I’ll miss the most is being around this wonderful colleague who was so caring and personable in such a real way.		Gabor Szekely’s Co-ME grant/project at ETH - Zurich. We met in Zurich or elsewhere in Switzerland every year for (I think) a full 10 years and it was a real highlight for me each time. Ferenc Jolesz was also on it, which always made things colorful as well. The thing that most stuck out for me was not just how fun and interesting it always was to talk with Bill at dinner and hear his viewpoints on things, but how he could really ground the discussions and keep everyone on track with regards to what the science and technology was really doing and what questions were being addressed in terms of really helping people & society and advancing healthcare. I remember him once in a while implying that he was the only one in the room without a Ph.D. or a M.D., but of course this never mattered one bit, as he was often the one person who had the most real insight as to what was going on with a system design or an algorithmic approach— and we all knew and appreciated this. His legacy will certainly live on through marching cubes and a number of other endeavors, but what I’ll miss the most is being around this wonderful colleague who was so caring and personable in such a real way.

Will.schroeder at 11:44, 22 January 2020

2020-01-22T11:44:37Z

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	"Counting cases in substitope algorithms." IEEE Transactions on		"Counting cases in substitope algorithms." IEEE Transactions on
	Visualization and Computer Graphics 10, no. 4 (2004): 371-384.		Visualization and Computer Graphics 10, no. 4 (2004): 371-384.

			=== James Duncan ===
			Bill and I served on a number of review and advisory panels together, but my favorite one was the scientific advisory group for
			Gabor Szekely’s Co-ME grant/project at ETH - Zurich. We met in Zurich or elsewhere in Switzerland every year for (I think) a full 10 years and it was a real highlight for me each time. Ferenc Jolesz was also on it, which always made things colorful as well. The thing that most stuck out for me was not just how fun and interesting it always was to talk with Bill at dinner and hear his viewpoints on things, but how he could really ground the discussions and keep everyone on track with regards to what the science and technology was really doing and what questions were being addressed in terms of really helping people & society and advancing healthcare. I remember him once in a while implying that he was the only one in the room without a Ph.D. or a M.D., but of course this never mattered one bit, as he was often the one person who had the most real insight as to what was going on with a system design or an algorithmic approach— and we all knew and appreciated this. His legacy will certainly live on through marching cubes and a number of other endeavors, but what I’ll miss the most is being around this wonderful colleague who was so caring and personable in such a real way.

	=== [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Jones7 Greg Jones] - The Goof Ball Story ===		=== [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Jones7 Greg Jones] - The Goof Ball Story ===

Will.schroeder at 11:37, 22 January 2020

2020-01-22T11:37:48Z

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	It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.		It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.

	=== Bob Laramee - How I Met Bill ===		=== [http://cs.swan.ac.uk/~csbob/ Bob Laramee] - How I Met Bill ===
	I was attending the IEEE Vis Conference in 2004 in Austin, TX (my second		I was attending the IEEE Vis Conference in 2004 in Austin, TX (my second
	Vis). It was the afternoon of the conference dinner/banquet and I was talking		Vis). It was the afternoon of the conference dinner/banquet and I was talking

Will.schroeder at 11:34, 22 January 2020

2020-01-22T11:34:44Z

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	It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.		It went poorly for me. We laughed about this for years. Literally, not a beer session would go by without shared jabs on this topic. I will miss the running gag.

			=== Bob Laramee - How I Met Bill ===
			I was attending the IEEE Vis Conference in 2004 in Austin, TX (my second
			Vis). It was the afternoon of the conference dinner/banquet and I was talking
			to Helwig and Helmut about possible ways I could get more drink/beer coupons
			for the event. I remember mentioning that Chinese students are always good to
			ask. Then I turned and saw a tall, friendly looking gentleman. So I
			just walked over to him seemingly at random and asked him if he planned on using his beer
			coupon. He said he was thinking about it but decided to be generous and gave
			it to me. Then I looked down at his name tag and noticed that it was
			the one and only Bill Lorensen. Needless to say, I was very surprised. Then I
			shook his hand expressing my enthusiastic gratitude and introduced myself. I proceeded to tell
			him that my masters thesis was an extension of the marching cubes algorithm
			to adaptive resolution data. It was a big day for me since I had spent so much
			time working in that project. Also, I kept the beer coupon Bill gave
			to me and still have it to this day.

	=== [https://biox.stanford.edu/people/sandy-napel Sandy Napel] ===		=== [https://biox.stanford.edu/people/sandy-napel Sandy Napel] ===