PAMELA ANN MCCORDUCK

1940 - 2021

PAMELA ANN MCCORDUCK
OCTOBER 27, 1940 – OCTOBER 18, 2021
New York, Santa Fe, and Walnut Creek
Champion of Artificial Intelligence, prolific writer and published author, philanthropist, loving sister, and aunt
Born in Liverpool, England during the height of German bombings Pamela emigrated permanently to the United States with her parents and younger twin siblings on the original Queen Elizabeth ocean liner arriving Ellis Island, New York on December 12, 1946. The family resided in New Jersey near relatives until 1949 when they moved to the Bay Area. For a brief time in the late 50s, she and her family lived in Rutherford, New Jersey where she graduated from Rutherford High School at the early age of 15 before returning to the Bay Area where she attended the University of California Berkeley earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Composition and Literature in 1960. A few years later, she went on to earn her Master's degree in English Lit at Columbia University in New York where she also became a Professor of Creative Writing. In 2020, Pamela became a donor and Board Member of the University of California Library.
In 1963, Pamela was working in the School of Business Administration at CAL where she became acquainted with Dr. Ed Feigenbuam who was teaching in the department at that time. Before she even had heard the expression "Artificial Intelligence" Pamela helped with the publication of the first ever book on AI. In 1965, Dr. Feigenbaum left CAL to become one of the founders of Stanford's newly formed computer science department at which time he asked Pamela to join the team at Stanford where her prolific writing skills were already in full bloom. It was at Stanford that Pamela met her future husband, Dr. Joseph Traub, who later became the head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and the founding Chair of the Computer Science Department at Columbia University in New York. During her stay in Pittsburgh, Pamela was a Professor of English Literature at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to New York.
Pamela is the author or coauthor of eleven published books, three of them novels. Her novel, The Edge of Chaos, was short-listed for Best Fiction for the 2008 New Mexico Book Awards. Its sequel, her tenth published book, called Bounded Rationality, was published in the fall of 2012, the second in a projected trilogy called Santa Fe Stories. She took time from working on the third volume to write a memoir called This Could Be Important: My Life and Times with the Artificial Intelligentsia, published in late 2019.
Her 1979 Machines Who Think, a history of artificial intelligence, was honored the year of its publication by the New York Public Library and was reissued in 2004 in a 25th anniversary edition, along with a new preface and lengthy afterword, that brought the history of the field up to date. Among her other books are The Universal Machine, Aaron's Code, The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World (co-authored with Ed Feigenbaum), and The Futures of Women (co-authored with Nancy Ramsey). She has consulted, and constructed future scenarios, for numerous firms in the transportation, financial, and high-tech sectors.
As a board member and then vice-president of the PEN American Center in New York City, Pamela founded and chaired an innovative program that sends authors and their books to newly literate adults at sites all over the country. She also chaired a committee to study PEN's long-range future which led to the first significant reorganization of PEN since it was founded in 1922.
In 2002, Pamela and her husband purchased a second home in Santa Fe, New Mexico where they continued to live 6 months of each year as well as 6 months in New York City. Pamela became a Board Member and Treasurer of the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts whilst continuing her membership in her beloved Century Association in New York where she gathered with like-minded people around the piano to sing songs from the American Songbook and moderated a reading group addressed to the works of Henry James, an early member of the club.
According to Martial Hebert, the current Dean of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, "Pamela was an early and hugely influential chronicler of artificial intelligence at CMU and elsewhere, and her writing – including direct conversations with many of the giants of the field – helped define the way we view, in her words, machines who think." In 2018, Pamela donated to CMU more than 50 mechanical calculators, encryption devices, and early computers from the collection amassed by her and her husband. This valuable collection includes a pair of Enigma machines used by the German army to keep secrets safe during WWII.
In 2017, after the passing of her husband, she left New York City and Santa Fe and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to be near her sister and brother where she continued to write and pursued her delight in the visual and performing arts. Pamela was known by her family and friends to have a tremendous sense of humor by entertaining them with humorous stories leaving everyone in stitches. "Friday night pizza" was a staple with her two siblings and spouses and were always filled with her inquisitive mind and trivia. She loved her nieces and nephews and delighted in hearing of their growth into adulthood.
Pamela was predeceased by her parents Hilda and William "Jack" McCorduck and her loving and devoted husband Dr. Joseph F. Traub. She is survived by her sister Sandra McCorduck Marona (Lee) and brother John McCorduck (Kathy), her nieces and nephews Jordan, Spencer and Alexis Marona, Kelly Hinkle (Scott), Brittany Fullerton (Nick), Brian McCorduck (Emily), and Blaire Morse Drew (Brandon), and her stepdaughters Hillary Spector (Avi) and Claudia Traub.
According to Nancy Ramsey, "Pamela's public face was grace, intelligence, and wit. Her deep respect for the dignity and rights of every person inspired her writing on technology and Artificial Intelligence. She saw them as tools in fulfilling those goals in the future."
At Pamela's request, no formal funeral or memorial service will be held in her honor. A close family and friends celebration of her life will be held in the future. Donations may be made to Hospice of the East Bay, 3470 Buskirk Ave, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 or your local Planned Parenthood.