Thomas Eugene Kurtz
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Thomas Eugene Kurtz (February 22, 1928 – November 12, 2024) was an American computer scientist and educator. A Dartmouth professor of mathematics, he and colleague John G. Kemeny are best known for co-developing the
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
programming language and the
Dartmouth Time-Sharing System The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) is a discontinued operating system first developed at Dartmouth College between 1963 and 1964. It was the first successful large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented, and was also the system for wh ...
in 1963 and 1964. These innovations made computing more accessible by simplifying programming for non-experts and allowing multiple users to share a single computer, transforming how computers were used in education and research. For his role in creating BASIC, the
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...
honored Kurtz in 1991 with the Computer Pioneer Award, and in 1994, he was inducted as a
fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the Association for Computing Machinery.


Early life and education

Thomas Kurtz was born on February 22, 1928, in Oak Park, Illinois, United States, to Helen Bell Kurtz and Oscar Christ Kurtz. His father, a German-American, worked for the Lions Clubs International headquarters, holding various roles. From an early age, Kurtz developed an interest in science. Kurtz enrolled at Knox College and developed an interest in mathematics, eventually taking every offered course in the subject. Encouraged by his advisor to pursue a career in statistics, he switched his major to mathematics during his senior year. Kurtz graduated from Knox College in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. His first experience with computing came in 1951 at the Summer Session of the Institute for Numerical Analysis at
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
. Kurtz went on to acquire his Ph.D. degree from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1956. His thesis was on a problem of multiple comparisons in mathematical statistics, and his advisor was
John Tukey John Wilder Tukey (; June 16, 1915 – July 26, 2000) was an American mathematician and statistician, best known for the development of the fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm and box plot. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distributi ...
. Kurtz's mathematical interests included
numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...
, statistics, and
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
.


Career

In 1956, he was recruited to Dartmouth College by John G. Kemeny and joined the Mathematics Department, where he taught statistics and numerical analysis. From 1963 to 1964, Kurtz and Kemeny, working with a team of students, led the development of the
Dartmouth Time-Sharing System The Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) is a discontinued operating system first developed at Dartmouth College between 1963 and 1964. It was the first successful large-scale time-sharing system to be implemented, and was also the system for wh ...
(DTSS) and the
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
programming language. DTSS allowed multiple users at separate terminals to share the processing power of a single machine, replacing a system of exclusive reservations. Kurtz and Kemeny prioritized simplicity, ensuring that DTSS was accessible to users without technical backgrounds. From 1966 to 1975, Kurtz served as Director of the Kiewit Computation Center at Dartmouth, and from 1975 to 1978, Director of the Office of Academic Computing. In 1979, he and Stephen J. Garland started a Computer and Information Systems master's program at Dartmouth. After the program ended in 1988, Kurtz returned to teaching, retiring in 1993. Kurtz also served as Council Chairman and Trustee of EDUCOM, as well as Trustee and Chairman of NERComP, and on the Pierce Panel of the President's Scientific Advisory Committee. Kurtz also served on the steering committees for the CONDUIT project and the CCUC conferences on instructional computing. In 1974, the American Federation of Information Processing Societies gave an award to Kurtz and Kemeny at the National Computer Conference for their work on BASIC and time-sharing. In 1991, the
IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...
honored Kurtz with the Computer Pioneer Award, and in 1994, he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2023, he was inducted as a fellow of the Computer History Museum, with the award presented by Bill Gates.


BASIC

As part of the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, Kemeny and Kurtz created the programming language
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
(Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). The first BASIC program ran on May 1, 1964, at 4 a.m. At the time, neither Kemeny nor Kurtz saw this as the start of something monumental. Their main hope was that BASIC would help students in understanding and engaging with the computers they were using. While Dartmouth College held the copyright to BASIC, they made it freely accessible to anyone interested in using it, and Kemeny and Kurtz made little money from it. The name for the language originated from Kurtz's wish to have a simple acronym that meant something as well. Kurtz states that: "We wanted a word that was simple but not simple-minded, and BASIC was that one." The theme that BASIC was for the average computer user was stressed by Kurtz. In an open letter, he reiterated upon past statements that BASIC was invented to give students a simple programming language that was easy to learn, as all the current languages of the time were dedicated to professionals. He went on to say that BASIC was for people who did not want to dedicate their lives to programming. Although BASIC was widely regarded as a success, some critics considered it to be confusing for longer programs, especially when the "GO TO" statement was used to jump between parts of a program. In addition, because the language was not designed as a structured language, it made it difficult to split programs into separate parts to improve maintainability. BASIC standards were created in the 1980s for ECMA and ANSI, with their versions being released in 1986 and 1987 respectively. In 1975, when Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a version of BASIC for the Altair 8800, one of the earliest personal computers, it helped launch the personal computer industry. Kurtz's work on BASIC was recognized by the IEEE as part of their milestone program, which marks historic places for human innovation from around the world. A commemorative plaque was placed on February 22, 2021.


True BASIC

In 1983, Kemeny, Kurtz, and four former Dartmouth students established True BASIC with the goal of introducing a modern commercial version of BASIC that would address the fragmentation caused by numerous incompatible dialects of the language, which were developed for early personal computers with limited memory and hardware-specific limitations. True BASIC featured
structured programming Structured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by making specific disciplined use of the structured control flow constructs of selection ( if/then/else) and repet ...
constructs such as a do-loop and else-if and support for multiple operating systems. Initially backed by $2.3 million in investment, the company struggled with profitability. Disagreements with its marketing partner, Addison-Wesley, led True BASIC to take marketing in-house, but sales still fell short of expectations. The company had annual revenues above $1 million in two years, according to the CEO in 1997, but the rise of integrated BASIC implementations, particularly from Microsoft, and declining demand for standalone programming tools limited its market reach. A 2004 interview noted sales of about 3,000 copies of True BASIC annually, primarily to high school students and hobbyists who had learned the language decades earlier.


Personal life

Kurtz was married to Patricia Barr from 1953 until their divorce in 1973. They had three children: twin sons Daniel Barr and Timothy David in 1954 and daughter Beth Louise in 1957. In 1974, he married Agnes Seelye Bixler, to whom he remained married until his death. Kurtz died of multiple organ failure caused by sepsis in
Lebanon, New Hampshire Lebanon ( ) is the only city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,282 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 13,151 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. Lebanon is in western New Hampshi ...
, on November 12, 2024, at the age of 96.


See also

* New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 261: BASIC: The First User-Friendly Computer Programming Language


References


External links


Thomas Kurtz papers
Dartmouth Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtz, Thomas E. 1928 births 2024 deaths American computer scientists American people of German descent BASIC programming language Dartmouth College faculty Knox College (Illinois) alumni Princeton University alumni Programming language designers 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery People from Oak Park, Illinois