Hubert Lipinski

1945 - 2025

Hubert Lipinski
08/03/1945 - 01/01/2025
Hubert Lipinski, designer and co-founder of cc:Mail, one of the first successful email companies for local area networks, died on January 1, 2025, in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 79. He will be remembered primarily as a devoted husband and father.
Hubert was born on August 3, 1945, in London, England, to Polish refugee parents Andrew Lipinski and Sophia Baranska. In 1953 he and his parents moved to Alberton outside Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He attended Cathedral High School in Hamilton where he graduated with honors at the age of 15.
Hubert and his family then moved to San Mateo, California, where Hubert attended Stanford University and earned a BS in both mathematics and physics at the age of 19. During this time, Hubert was active in tennis, swimming, and skiing.
In 1969, Hubert earned his Ph.D. in high energy theoretical physics from the University of California, San Diego, where he met his wife Valerie Spiess, whom he married on June 22, 1968. Hubert and Valerie moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where Hubert worked as a post-graduate on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin for one year. At this time, Hubert decided to change direction and enter the exciting new world of software engineering.
In 1970, Hubert began working for the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, California. There he was privileged to work with Paul Baron, developing the first teleconferencing system called PLANET which joined computers in Sweden, France, and Menlo Park. He also developed the protocols for what would become known as email. He was also a major contributing author for the books Teletext and Videotext in the United States (1982), The Market for Teletext in the United States (1983), Group Communication Through Computers Series (1974, 1975, and 1978), and An Alternative Approach for Revenue Sharing (1975). With his team Hubert also developed the first multimedia system, using computers sharing text, audio, and video.
In 1983 Hubert co-founded the company which would become cc:Mail. Originally the company was marketed as a real time workplace between computers. However, investors thought that was an unrealistic market, so Hubert developed the email system for local area networks that eventually had more than 14 million users and had users in Europe as well as in the United States, where at one point it was used by more than half of the domestic email market. Due to the growth of the internet, cc:Mail closed in 2000.
Hubert's interest returned to physics, and he worked to develop a unified gravity theory which resulted in the paper "Gravity Theory Based on Mass Energy Equivalence" published with his son Stephen in the Polish journal Acta Physica Polonica B. Using this theory as a basis for developing an alternative energy source through cold fusion, Hubert and his son Stephen along with longtime colleague Michael Palmer started Unified Gravity Corporation in 2007 which eventually closed in 2018, despite some promising experimental results, due to Hubert's growing health issues.
Hubert was active as a volunteer, coaching the AYSO soccer teams for all four of his sons and being very active at church in many ministries, particularly as organizer of the Respect for Life Prayer Walk for the mid-peninsula for 27 years and as sacristan and altar server at both St. William and St. Nicholas churches in Los Altos, CA.
In 2021 Hubert moved with Valerie to Charlottesville, Virginia, to be close to his son Michael and receive excellent nursing care at Martha Jefferson House where both he and Valerie were able to reside and enjoy its loving and compassionate community.
Hubert is survived by his wife of 56 years, Valerie; his sons David Lipinski, Michael (Shawn) Lipinski, Stephen (Jessica) Lipinski, and Jeffrey (Irina) Lipinski; his grandchildren Sophia, Josephine, Leonardo, Basia, Stella, Mila, and Logan; and his siblings Christopher Lipinski, Suzanne Phinney, Martha Lawrence, and Linda Corliss.
A special thanks goes to the staff of Martha Jefferson House and Brookwood Therapeutic Services as well as Dr. Lisa McDermott and Sue Kiley, NP, for giving Hubert such a fine quality of life despite his health struggles.
A rosary vigil will take place at 7:00 p.m. on January 23rd at Spangler Mortuary in Los Altos. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on January 24th at St. William Catholic Church in Los Altos with a reception in the church hall afterwards. Burial will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park. Donations may be made to Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County or Second Harvest of Silicon Valley in lieu of flowers.