William Robert Landreth Sutherland

1936 - 2020

William Robert Landreth Sutherland
May 10, 1936 - Feb. 18, 2020
Mountain View
William (Bert) Robert Landreth Sutherland, a prominent computer scientist, died peacefully at his home on February 18, 2020 in Mountain View, CA. He was 83. Bert is survived by his loving wife, their six children and three grandchildren who share his curiosity, generosity and intellect.
Bert's professional contributions crossed technical and corporate settings to cover the management of research labs, venture capital, technical advising and company governance. Over the decades, he was involved in the development of numerous technologies that have become fundamental to computing today. Bert is most widely recognized for his unique and at times unconventional approach to research management of three distinguished computer science laboratories. His leadership at both Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) in the 1970s and Sun Microsystems Laboratories in the 1990s took place at a time of pivotal change in the computer industry. Bert was proud to have influenced the future of computing.
Bert earned his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (BEE) in 1957 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his Masters in Science (MS) and Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and 1966 respectively. Claude E. Shannon was his PhD thesis advisor. His PhD thesis involving graphical dataflow programming has been cited as influential to visual programming environments common today.
During his military service in the U.S. Navy from 1957-1962, Bert completed over one hundred successful carrier landings as an anti-submarine warfare plane commander. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his development of the Juliet Simulator, which allowed flight crews to more easily train for submarine detection.
Bert's love of travel took him around the world, often connecting with family and friends in distant places. An avid tinkerer, he relished problem solving and loved a challenging project, especially if it involved spending time in his workshop. Bert lived a full life filled with many personal and professional accomplishments. He will be missed by many.


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