This page is for site visitors to post remembrances and thoughts at the time of Dr. Pournelle’s passing (8 Sep 2017). Your thoughts can be added using the form at the bottom of this page. Comments that are not related to words of encouragement or condolences will be removed.
Dr. Pournelle’s family appreciates those that have taken the time to send condolences and well wishes.
For those that are interested in Dr. Pournelle’s books, please see the e-books page or the Amazon page . Here’s a list of all of Jerry’s books: All The Books.
Jerry’s last post is here. The text of the eulogy given at the memorial is here. Site news is here. – Editor
When I got my first computer in 1986 my son said that I MUST read Jerry Pournelle. I did, and felt that I had acquired a whole family. Now when youngsters call me a hip old grandmother, I know that it is just that Jerry taught me to demand and manage my computer my way, no matter what. My family all ended up reading all of his columns and sci fi. We loved every minute, while disagreeing about his politics. As my son wrote me yesterday, Rest in Peace, Jerry, you lived a good life. We can only imagine the loss to his family. He was FUN.
Hard to believe he is gone. As a young engineering student he was a profound influence on my views regarding space access, technology, politics and general views on life. His amazing body of writings (not the least of which was his science fiction) have entertained and challenged me for years. I have no words to express the true impact he had on my life. My most sincere condolences to his family, friends and fans.
God speed sir.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having discovered Dr. Pournelle via his regular column in Byte magazine. To this day I remember his advice of always checking the cables first, even though it’s usually the last thing we’d check when diagnosing PC woes.
RIP Jerry – my thoughts and condolences to your family.
Godspeed soldier. We’ll see you later on the high ground.
Rest In Peace Jerry. Condolences to your family. You made technology fun for so many of us. It was an honor to meet you a few years back. God bless!
Dr. Pournelle leaves a robust body of work, and I’ll miss the mail and discussion here at Chaos Manor. I’m also disappointed that Mamelukes is unfinished, but considering his health difficulties in the last decade the work that he’s done is remarkable. The sense of possibility and potential for a better (or at least not worse) future that Jerry brought to SF (and real life) will be missed, but hopefully someone will pick up the torch. RIP.
My thoughts and prayers to the family. His daily columns were a routine of mine for decades. His books were gateways into science fiction for me and his lucid and well thought out arguments were a refreshing outlook on life and events. He will be greatly missed.
I read Jerry’s work in Popular Computing and ever since. I read avidly his science fiction and followed him at Chaos Manor. My condolences to his family. We will miss him. R.I.P. Jerry.
Everyone knew when Jerry entered a room. He had a John Wayne presence and a voice that cut through any conversation soaked room. As a greenhorn editor for Popular Computing magazine in the early 80s, I shared a shot or two with Jerry in a hotel room during COMDEX. He sized me up pretty quickly, but I was too young to know what to make of him at first—that took another decade. I worked for BYTE during those years, eventually becoming editor-in-chief. Though he never admitted it to me, I am certain he had something to do with that.
Back then, some folks had begun to wonder if BYTE had lost its way, and though his column continued, Jerry had started writing for other computer magazines, too. That changed one night over a bowl of chili at Chaos Manor. I showed up to take Jerry to dinner at some fancy restaurant in hopes of convincing him to be exclusive to BYTE. That night, though, Jerry had other ideas, which he disclosed in plotted bits and pieces. What first seemed to be his hemming and hawing and downright procrastination about dinner finally gave way to a distinct aroma from the kitchen. You see, he had cooked up a pot of chili that was simmering on the stove, and he was on a mission to convince me that his chili was better than mine. It was, and we both got what we wanted. As it turns out, you can get to know a person over a bowl of chili.
From that moment on, Jerry was always there with advice and encouragement during the rest of my time at BYTE. He was an inspiration. And just to be clear, and even though we had writers that included Michael Crichton, William F. Buckley, Al Gore, Bill Gates, and nearly every leading light in personal computers, Jerry was the most read. He was, in fact, the reason many people subscribed to BYTE. Yet it was Jerry who would, during those rare moments when it was just the two of us, speak of his admiration of the BYTE editorial staff and the BYTE readers—betraying his bigger-than-life guise.
Jerry was a good man, and he had an impact on my life that I could not have anticipated.
Roberta, thank you for sharing Jerry with BYTE—and us all.
Finally, if there is a heaven, and I believe there is, then surely there is chili cook-off there, and Jerry is in first place and serving his chili.
I never met Dr. Pournelle in person. His works – the books with Larry Niven and his Chaos Manor columns – I very much enjoyed reading in the 80s and early 90s. Fair winds and safe voyage among the stars, sir. RIP.
I was lucky to be on the computer conference and trade show circuit for a while with Dr. Pournelle and, as Dr. Brin put it, we differed on many policies but he was in that rare group of people who I can disagree with but with great respect for the sincerity and committment to his beliefs.
His Chaos Manor columns were a “must read” for all of us in the nascent industry of the CP/M days and later through the growrh of the PC industry. His views were so important that even Microsoft knew their products could be boosted or seriously hurt by what he said even in an aside. Nobody has that level of credibility now and it’s doubtful anyone ever will n this industry.
The last time I ran across him was in a speakers’ lounge at a conference in San Jose years ago but both his Chaos Manor columns and his novels with Larry Niven live on with me. I mentioned Chaos Manor to somebody a few weeks ago and actually quoted from OATH OF FEALTY just two days ago.
That’s at least a start on immortality.
Jerry Pournelle’s books expanded my sense of the universe’s possibilities when I was young. As an adult, I still reread some of my favorites. And his lovely column at Byte demystified the novel technology of PC’s. May he rest in peace.
I was shocked and saddened to hear of Dr. Pournelle’s passing. His work had a great influence on my career. When I read the books “A Step Farther Out ” and “Endless Frontier” as an engineering student in college, it rekindled the enthusiasm I had for space exploration when I was younger. Throughout school and then into my working career, I proceeded to read all of his writing that I could find, including the copy of “The Strategy of Technology” that was in the Plant 35 technical library at Grumman.
I then got to meet Dr. Pournelle several times over the subsequent years at L5, Space Access, ISDC, and Space Frontier Foundation conferences, as well as Loscons and the occasional LASFS meeting. We would discuss the future course of space development and how to best enable it, and I learned a lot from his thought-provoking comments that would sometimes challenge what I already “knew” to be right. I guess I learned well enough that Jerry graciously agree to let me attend the 1997 Citizen’s Advisory Council on National Space Policy (CACNSP) meeting when Henry Vanderbilt wanted to invite me.
Many people will remember Dr. Pournelle’s computer columns and science fiction, but it was his mostly-unheralded work in pushing space development that I think will be most important for the human race in the long run.
For those who do not know the story, in the wake of the Challenger accident, Dr. Pournelle chaired the CACNSP and pushed for the idea that the United States government should guarantee every year to pay $500 per pound for the first one million pounds placed into orbit by private US companies (in minimum increments of 10,000 lb.). That inspired volunteer grass-roots space activists to push through the passage of the Launch Services Purchase Act of 1990. Eventually, that led to the market for commercial launch services that SpaceX and Orbital compete for today, and that Blue Origin and others are trying to enter.
My deepest sympathy to his family, friends, colleagues, and fans, who will miss him greatly.
Jerry was one of the most important writers of my youth and had a profound impact on my thinking and development. I shall be eternally grateful for his life and work. He was a treasure. I cry for our loss, but am so glad he lived.
From Chaos Manor to Lucifer’s Hammer, Dr. Pournelle helped feed the minds of many burgeoning geeks, including myself. His was my favorite column in my favorite computer magazine. I did not always agree with him, but I was always interested in what he had to say. We shared a journey together. RIP old friend.
Hard to believe that he is gone. He made an impact in my life that can not really be measured. Fair winds and following seas good sir. My sincere condolences to his family.
RIP Dr. Pournelle and thanks for all of the interesting debates in the early years of the PC.
I read his column in Byte every month! My thoughts are with his Family. RIP…
My deepest sympathies to all of Dr. Pournelle’s family. He will be greatly missed; we are diminished without him.
Rest in Peace, dear sir.
Thank you, Jerry. I follow you since your column in Byte in the 80s. I was a young man from Argentina and your world looked too far, but you were there, in your writing making the hardware magazine less hard to read. Now the world is smaller and closer, you are still present in your books, in your site, in my mind.
I hope you have a good text corrector there I am not sure my English is good enough.
Thank you, Jerry. Godspeed.