Richard Irwin Kittredge

Richard Irwin Kittredge

Ithaca, NY - Richard died on April 1, 2019 at the SUNY Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, NY, from heart failure following aortic dissection. His wife and two daughters were with him at the hospital at the time of his death.

Richard was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 25, 1941, to Louise Constance Irwin and William McNair Kittredge, Jr. He graduated from Catonsville Senior High School in 1959, received a BA in mathematics in 1963 from Swarthmore College, and obtained a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in formal linguistics and mathematical logic in 1969. Richard became Professor of Linguistics at the University of Montreal in Canada, where he produced pioneering work in the computer-assisted translation of language. In 1989, together with his wife Tatiana Korelsky and other colleagues, Richard co-founded CoGenTex, one of the first research and development start-ups dedicated to computer-generated language. For many years, Richard divided his time between Ithaca, where his family was based, and Montreal.

In 2006, Richard retired from the University of Montreal. He spent the next 13 years managing CoGenTex as company president until his death, and devoting time to his many hobbies: genealogy, maintaining and repairing his family homes, nature conservancy, traveling, bird-watching, and music, especially early music (he was a strong supporter of NYS Baroque, the New York State Early Music Association).

Richard is survived by his wife, Tatiana Korelsky, his daughters Audrey Kittredge and Dasha Kittredge, his granddaughter Ariane Chaintreau, his sisters Nancy Geiser and Sally Gifford, his brother John Kittredge, as well as many nieces and nephews and extended family members. Those who knew him will greatly miss and remember his intelligence, his kindness, his deep affection, and his love of life.

A small family funeral took place on 7 April 2019 in Clinton, NY. A larger celebration of Richard's life will be held in the autumn of 2019 (please send an email to celebratingrichard@gmail.com if you would like to be updated with the date and location). Gifts in Richard's memory can be made to the Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/en-us/).