Robert Litwiller

Robert John Litwiller of Palo Alto, CA did not awaken on February 10th, 2025, the morning following his 90th birthday.

Robert came from rural northwestern Illinois, descended from Mennonites who settled the area in the 1860s. He was the younger of two siblings born to Orville Joseph Litwiller, a science teacher and school principal, and Helen Landon Baughman. At Lena High School he played varsity basketball and baseball, becoming stronger in basketball as he grew to 6' 6". In 1952 he graduated Valedictorian (although he would point out that there were only twenty students in his class). He then did the same at Beloit College, playing varsity basketball and baseball, double-majoring in math and physics, and graduating Valedictorian in 1956 (though he would point out that Beloit did not officially bestow this title on the student with the highest grades). He then pursued graduate studies in physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, earning an MS in 1958 before being drawn into the new field of computers.

Robert moved to Poughkeepsie, NY to work for IBM. These were the days of supercomputer competitions, in which IBM teams competed against companies like Univac, Honeywell, and CDC to build the fastest computer using the new transistor technology. In 1961 IBM held a test-taking competition for employees, in which Robert won a full scholarship with salary to pursue a Master's at Stanford in the new field of computer science. This brought him to Palo Alto for the first time, from 1961-1962, after which he returned to Poughkeepsie to help develop IBM's breakthrough System/360 mainframes.

Silicon Valley became his home in 1968, after IBM opened its Advanced Computing Systems Project facility on Sand Hill Road. Because he was, by his own description, 'a good IBM citizen,' he was granted a two-year assignment in Paris beginning in 1973. He lived at Sq. du Trocadero, across from the Eiffel Tower, with his first wife Edith and their toddler Eric, and became fluent in French. This marked a permanent shift in his career focus to software and data communications.

In 1976 he purchased a house on Coleridge Avenue that he would call home for nearly 50 years. In his spare hours he played tennis and recreation league basketball. He married Julianne Winters Budge, a writer and teacher from Utah, in 1983, and in 1984 they took a four-year IBM assignment in London. Living near Kensington Palace, they used London as a base to explore Europe together, and to host family visits.

Robert continued with IBM in various capacities until 2000, after which he and Julianne enjoyed a long and happy retirement on Coleridge Avenue. They were members of the Unity Church, frequent attendees at Stanford lectures, enthusiastic foodies, curators of family Christmas parties, and fawning patrons of the cats and squirrels in their backyard.

Robert is predeceased by his sister Helen Elizabeth Meeker. He is survived by his wife Julianne, his son Eric, Eric's daughter Anna, Julianne's daughters Allison and Camille, Allison's son Austin, and Austin's daughter Madison. Robert's honesty, self-discipline, loyalty, wit, and warmth will be missed by all who knew him.