Oct-11-02

Kristen Nygaard
(1926-2002)

Kristen Nygaard, who died during August in Oslo, was the manager of the Simula-1 and Simula-67 projects. He left his mark on the software industry as a co-inventor of Object Oriented Programming and as a great and charismatic leader. Before his death he was honored with the IEEE Von Neumann Medal and the ACM Turing Award (both jointly with Olé-Johan Dahl).
  Kristen was one of the most perfectly catalytic personalities I have ever met. This is a role that is eternally unappreciated, but absolutely essential for anything wonderful to be accomplished. Of course, Olé-Johan Dahl is the name most often associated with Simula and was regarded as its father. I guess Kristen then was the mid-wife. Kristen did not just bring catalysis to the Simula project, he brought it to everything he touched. Even an innocuous conversation of half a dozen friends reconvening would work better if Kristen were there. He was sweet, funny man, full of optimism and self-deprecating humor, devoid of pretense. I wish there were more like him.

– Tom DeMarco