Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

I felt honored to have known Dr. Brooks and I felt privileged and very proud to work for him at UNC Chapel Hill. He was unparalleled in his mission to promote education. He was a kind and caring man. I think of him often and I miss him.

Did Dr Brooks ever run a summer camp and administer a summer swim program in Lake Mohegan New York circa 1958? Thanks for any info. Contact email "[email protected]"

I was privileged to take three graduate courses (Computer Architecture, Software Engineering, and a topics course on professional issues) from Professor Brooks in the early 1980s, while a computer science graduate student at Duke University. I will never forget his smile and will be forever grateful for his kindness, wise counsel, and the generous offer of taking me as his Ph.D. student, which I regretfully declined because my main research interest was in a different area.

I was privileged and honored to work with Dr. Brooks, as his secretary, at UNC. We kept in touch through the years and I always looked forward to reading his incredible Christmas letters, full of joy, family updates, travel and, of course, continued work. He was patient and had time for everyone. I am so proud to have been able to support this very intelligent, kind and humble man. I will miss him. My thoughts and prayers are with Nancy, Roger, Kenneth, Barbara and their families.

Thank you Fred! Fred Brooks words and example have been a guiding light for me in a so far 50-year software development career. That Fred took the time to communicate the insights he had earned while creating the System/360 has helped so many of us succeed in our chosen software careers. I hope he had as much fun building software as I have. By coincidence, I had just shared some of Fred's wisdom in an article published earlier in November:...

I am so sad to read this. Fred was a dear friend of my father, Bob Evans. They worked together on the IBM 360. Fred came to my father's memorial. Had I known in time, I would most certainly have attended his. My thoughts are with his family. His was a life well-lived.

Dear Brooks family, We are sending you lots of love and prayers. Thank you so much for being such dear and important friends to our parents, Dante and Virginia Germino. They both admired and respected you so much and you meant the world to them. Lots of love, Renata Germino and family

From Aditi Majumder (graduate student at UNC-CS from 1996-2003 and now faculty at UC-Irvine): I had the special privilege of being touched by Dr. Brooks as a grad student and over the years that followed. As I am overcome with sadness with the passing of his era, my own memories of him come flooding back. He used to attend every Wednesday Graphics lunch, a platform for PhD students to give practice talks before going out in the world to give the talk. When many would strive hard to get Dr....