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James Arvo Obituary
August 12, 1956 - October 19, 2011
James "Jim" Richard Arvo, 55, of Pasadena, California, passed away October 19, 2011. Jim was born in Warren, Michigan, to Helmer and Mathilda (Martin) Arvo and attended Warren High School. He graduated from Michigan Technological University and Michigan State University with degrees in Mathematics and began doctoral studies in Computer Science at Yale University.
He spent 13 years as a Computer Graphics researcher, first at Apollo Computer and then at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he met his wife, Erin Shaw. They married there in 1994.
In 1995, Jim received his PhD from Yale and joined the Computer Science faculty at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. In 2002, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine. A passionate and highly regarded teacher, he won teaching awards at both universities, especially for his notable Theory of Computation course.
Jim was a life-long atheist who enjoyed debating theology and evolution, and a prolific and published writer. From 2001-2011, he worked as a Computer Graphics consultant, first for Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, CA, and later for Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, CA.
Jim's greatest pleasure was spending time with his beloved son, Julian. They enjoyed trading riddles, playing board games, watching movies, juggling, playing catch and basketball, and working together in the garage that Jim enjoyed remodeling himself. Jim was a constant fixture at Julian's sports games. He was an avid tennis and squash player and began long-distance running when he was 42. He completed five Los Angeles marathons.
Jim is survived by his wife, Erin Shaw, and son, Julian James Arvo, both of Pasadena; his two sisters, Carol P. Brown and Nancy Rudnik (William), of Shelby Township, MI; and his nieces, nephews and many cousins. He will also be missed by his family's numerous adopted cats. He was preceded in death by his parents, Helmer and Mathilda (Martin) Arvo.
Jim's ashes will be scattered over his land in Rousseau, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the site of his father's family farmhouse.
A Memorial Service will be held at the Caltech Athenaeum in Pasadena, at 10:00am Friday, November 11th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Pasadena Humane Society or Clairbourn School in San Gabriel, CA.
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for James Arvo
Eric Haines
October 27, 2024
I just ran across a reference to Jim's work today, on normalizing the Phong model. He lives on in my memory as a nice person doing great work.
Ilja Friedel
March 18, 2024
I learned of Jim's raytracing work as an undergrad in Germany before I came to the US. It was unreal to have him as one of my teachers at Caltech. He left for Irvine and unfortunately contact faded. I kept thinking of Jim from time to time. So sad to learn now of this news to me. My belated condolences to Erin, Julian, Carol, Nancy, and his family. Jim was a wonderful human, a great researcher and teacher. I miss him.
Eric Haines
October 21, 2020
I was thinking about Jim again just last week. Someone asked a technical question about early ray tracing research, and Jim would have been the person I would have asked. I miss him.
June 3, 2012
I was shocked to hear the sad news of Jim's passing. I am so sorry for his family. -Bob Grainger (San Antonio, Tx)
Jeff Cutter
March 18, 2012
I hadn't heard from Jim in a few months, so I found this shocking information after searching through Facebook - Although the world knew him as Jim Arvo, I knew him as Jamie Arvo, for I knew him since we were in 7th grade at old Fuhrmann Junior High School - Jamie and I were in many upper level classes together at Fuhrmann and old Warren High School - he played violin in the orchestra and I played alto sax/bassoon in the band. He was a great person and will be missed by all!
Melissa White
February 6, 2012
I am so sorry to read this. I worked with Jim on two CGI movies at Apollo computer in the 1980's. I am a designer with zero understanding of most things tech, and yet Jim showed great patience and humor when working all those long hours, and with the help of many others, we turned out some pretty nice work.
He was a wonderful man.
Gregory Ward
November 26, 2011
I was shocked and saddened to hear of Jim's passing. He was one of those people you couldn't help but admire. Brilliant and personable at the same time, he had almost infinite patience in explaining things and sharing his joy of knowledge and discovery. He advanced the field of computer graphics immensely, and will be sorely missed by our community. My deepest condolences to his family.
November 20, 2011
We so fondly remember your visits to us with Erin and Julian; our trips to the "beach" at Winding Trails and outings to the latest and greatest local Japanese restaurant. Julian, your Dad was so proud of you and loved you so much, it showed in everything he did and said. You have a wonderful foundation from him and your Mom; we will watch you grow up as their remarkable son.
Our deepest sympathies and love to Erin and Julian,
Ellie, Larry, Emily and Hannah (the bee girls) Pareles
Farmington, CT
Ken Musgrave
November 12, 2011
I knew Jim in a rather irreverent way: I came to Yale long after he'd left for Cornell, yet I completed my PhD there before he did his.
I enjoyed giving him a hard time about this for years. We always had some good laughs together, despite his formidable demeanor.
Don V Black, PhD
November 11, 2011
I am greatly saddened by Prof Arvo's passing. He was a fine Thesis advisor for me and made many contributions to my education. I have unanswered questions in the domain of computer graphics and visualization that I now realize I had hoped to yet discuss with him. He will be missed.
Alan Heirich
November 10, 2011
Jim, I'm sorry to hear the news of your departure. You were a great PhD advisor for me at Caltech and a great human being. You will be missed.
November 10, 2011
I wasn't a CS major, but I took CS 20 from Prof. Arvo my sophomore year at Caltech. It was a fantastic class, well worth getting up early for (it was at 9 AM, which when I was in college was ungodly early). I'm lucky that I was able to take an entire year's course sequence from him.
My condolences to his family.
Hao Zhang
November 9, 2011
I took a class with Prof Arvo during sophomore, in 1997. Because of that class, I decided to be a computer science major, and went on in that field. I TAed and RAed for Jim before PhD study at another school. My life would have been very different if not for Jim Arvo. His kindness, generosity, and perspective of leading ideas in work and life is always in my memory.
Louise Foucher
November 8, 2011
Jim was a great guy and pleasure to work with at Caltech. My condolences to Erin and Julian.
Louise Foucher
Lorraine Kan
November 3, 2011
Professor Arvo was definitely one of best teachers at UCI. He was able to make his students engaged and interested in the subject matter. Years after taking his class I still recall fondly of what I've learned. We will miss Professor Arvo. My heartfelt condolences to his family.
Nafisa Baker
October 31, 2011
Professor Arvo was an amazing professor. I had the opportunity to take two classes with him, and I'm so glad I did. He taught me to really think about the problem and opened me up to the world of graphics. My condolences to his family, he was a great man and will be missed. May he rest in peace.
Ravi Ramamoorthi
October 31, 2011
Jim was one of the great researchers and mentors of our field. His work in rendering laid the groundwork for much of what we do today, and the intellectual rigor of his work has been a guiding light for my own research philosophy. Moreover, Jim first introduced me to the idea of "inverting the rendering equation" that led to my PhD thesis on inverse rendering at Stanford. His papers introduced such key concepts as ray tracing acceleration structures (SIGGRAPH 87), unbiased adaptive sampling (SIGGRAPH 90), spherical harmonics for global illumination, that I built on heavily in my thesis (SIGGRAPH 91) and sampling of non-planar surfaces (SIGGRAPH 95). The foundations of our field would be very different without them.
Beyond this, Jim was an exemplary teacher and mentor, winning multiple teaching awards, and mentoring many great minds at Cornell, Caltech and UCI. I was fortunate to have been his MS student at Caltech (we wrote a paper on inverse generative modeling at SIGGRAPH 99). The intellectual curiosity, rigor and breadth of knowledge of the field he passed on during those years are key to what I aspire for today. Beyond this, he remained available to advise well after we stopped collaborating. I called him at home many times for support during my faculty searches in both 2002 and 2008. It is a terrible loss for his family; I know he was devoted most of all to Erin and Julian, and I hope they find the strength to get through this extremely difficult time. For all his colleagues, students and the field as a whole, it is a great loss.
Boris Dimitrov
October 31, 2011
Jim's support went far beyond the duties of an academic adviser. He encouraged us to break new ground in any area that we were passionate about, even outside his own research interests, and he always had something nice to say when we encountered obstacles. I remember one time I was looking into lattice theory and Jim asked "Who founded that?" When I said "I think Birkhoff", Jim responded with something like "Oh, he was my adviser's adviser, and your grand-adviser, so lattice theory should be easy for you."
We enjoyed puzzling over hard problems. When teaching a CS foundation class Jim picked up a hobby of reducing one NP complete problem to another. He always came up with incredibly imaginative ways to do it, and I remember how he shared a couple of his inventions with me, beaming with pleasure.
Jim was proud when we did things independently. Being so brilliant himself, he gladly leveraged our individual strengths. For instance, he would ask us to read a book on a subject that he might have less affinity for, and then he would listen patiently as we summarize that for him. He let us determine freely what we worked on but pushed us to develop the skills needed to succeed (for instance, he didn't care what type of math I was working on, but pushed me hard to learn to write for non-mathematicians).
Even though we parted ways so long ago I was saddened by Jim's passing. My sincere sympathy to all who miss him.
Patrick Flynn
October 31, 2011
I had the pleasure of knowing Prof. Arvo through his wonderful classes at UC Irvine and his excellent reviews on Amazon. I have several excellent books in my collection because of his "say so!" Being the bibliophile that I am, this gives him a special place in my heart. He was always so courteous and thoughtful in his dealings with students, a true model for those graduate students that go on to teaching. When I just saw the unexpected news about Prof. Arvo, I swore so loudly. I guess I have had a sense that, as my scientific computing training proceeded, I would be interacting more one-on-one with him, Sadly, this will not happen, but I thank my stars that I was able to experience him as much as I did. My heart goes out to Prof. Arvo's family. Thank you Prof. Arvo.
Dmitri Arkhipov
October 30, 2011
Professor Arvo was an amazing educator, and could communicate make even the most difficult concepts attainable. I was lucky enough to take several courses with him at UCI and I was amazed at his brilliance each time. The world is worse off for his loss, but better of for his time in it.
October 30, 2011
Jim, my brother, I miss you and I love you. I will always cherish the times spent with you. Even though we were many miles apart, California to Michigan, you were always close to me in my thoughts and always in my prayers. I will forever hold all the precious memories of you close to me in my heart. Your loving sister, Carol
Shannon Tauro
October 28, 2011
My condolences to the Arvo Family. I met Jim when we briefly served together on a teaching review committee. His comments & demeanor were always warm & encouraging. I am sorry for your loss.
Eric Haines
October 28, 2011
I'm sad to hear the news. I knew him from SIGGRAPH and his work in ray tracing, his Graphics Gems articles and editorship, and his time at Cornell. I liked him & admired him - what a nice and super-smart guy.
John Hughes
October 28, 2011
Jim was a terrific guide for me in the world of rendering research, and his ability to answer my questions demonstrated his enormous talents as a teacher.
But it was his good nature and generosity that made me smile every time we talked on the phone or met at SIGGRAPH. Gosh, I'm going to miss him.
Weng Leong Ng
October 27, 2011
My heart goes out to Jim's family in their time of bereavement.
Jim did me the honor of being on my PhD advancement and defense committees at UCI, and was present for my defense about two months ago. Stellar researchers are seldom also gifted teachers; Jim was a rare combination of both, and I, like so many other students, am blessed to have crossed paths with a teacher of his caliber.
Pierre Poulin
October 27, 2011
An impressive researcher, great teacher, with a kind soul.
Eugene Fiume
October 27, 2011
What a beautiful person.
My deepest condolences to Jim's family.
Vicki Hill
October 27, 2011
Jim was just a little boy when I knew him. His sisters were very close friends of ours. We heard soooo many wonderful things about you. But the most important accomplishment you earned was that of being the best father to a very special little boy. I never tire of going over the pictures of you and Julian. You can actually feel the love between you and your son.
Nancy and Carol, I cannot even begin to express how deeply sorrowful I feel for you. You will need time to deal with this tragedy. If you are ever in need of someone to just talk with, you can call me any time. I love you and am so glad that Julian has such incredible aunts to help him cope with his loss and fears. I will be keeping you and the entire Arvo family in my thoughts and prayers.
With all my love,
Vicki (Guilloz) Hill
Sue (Perry)Schoenfeld
October 27, 2011
Jim, you will truly be missed by all. You were a big part of my high school memories and after. My heartfelt sympathies to the entire Arvo family.
Gene Greger
October 27, 2011
Jim was an incredibly talented and friendly individual. I feel honored to have known him for the short time I did at Cornell. Our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.
Min Chen
October 27, 2011
My deepest sympathy to Erin and Julian. Jim, you are the best advisor and role model I have ever met, I really cherish the time at Caltech as your PhD student.
Roxanne Horger-Zack
October 27, 2011
My deepest sympathy to the entire Arvo family. May God comfort you in this most difficult of times.
Nancy Rudnik
October 27, 2011
Jim, no one could ask for a better brother than you. You were the best, and my heart is aching so badly right now. Although many miles separated us, when we got together we just picked up where we left off. I'll never again be able to visit the Upper Peninsula without seeing you everywhere. I was always so proud of you, bragging about your accomplishments and what an amazing father you were. We'll all miss you more than words can say... and as I have always prayed for you, I will continue to always pray for Julian. We'll keep him close, staying in touch, and make sure he's okay. He's such a good boy and such a beautiful reflection of your love for him. I'll never forget you, dear precious little brother. I love you.
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