Eric Ostrom, R.I.P.
Jul. 12th, 2004 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbI've just heard that Eric Ostrom passed away last week. I never met him, but he worked at Xerox PARC sometime before I did. People would walk past my office, double-take at the nameplate, then look inside and comment that I didn't look much like the Eric they knew. Later, when I lived in Boston, I would run into people who knew Eric from M.I.T. I used to joke that I was following him around the country, at a discreet distance of several years.
Anyway, although I never knew Eric, I always felt a certain bond to him, for obvious reasons. I used to think someday I'd catch up with him, and, although I'd already pretty much permanently diverged from that path, it's sad to realize I never will.
Update: Friends of Eric seem to be finding this post with Google, but he was only a tangential figure in my life. You'd get more out of Doug Alan's post.
Anyway, although I never knew Eric, I always felt a certain bond to him, for obvious reasons. I used to think someday I'd catch up with him, and, although I'd already pretty much permanently diverged from that path, it's sad to realize I never will.
Update: Friends of Eric seem to be finding this post with Google, but he was only a tangential figure in my life. You'd get more out of Doug Alan's post.
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that's just creepy
Date: 2004-07-12 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-13 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-17 04:15 am (UTC)When I ran into him on campus afterwards, he was always cheerful, even though the illness had forced him to retire, and he had run into serious financial difficulty. Last I heard, Eric was living at a shelter for homeless veterans. There's something just horrifically wrong with a society that even needs a shelter for homeless veterans. I greatly respected Eric's courage and perseverance in the face of tremendous hardship, and I am sorry to hear of his passing. I understand that there is an effort afoot to organize a memorial service at MIT during the first week of August, but that definite arrangments have not yet been made.
I understand that there has been some difficulty in locating Eric's next of kin. Do any of you know how to reach them?
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Date: 2004-07-30 04:44 pm (UTC)I missed the funeral, but made it to the memorial service at the MIT chapel. That was a moving day.
There's something just horrifically wrong with a society that even needs a shelter for homeless veterans.
I'm not sure I agree. A substantial fraction of homelessness, especially among able-bodied war veterans, is due to mental/emotional problems with the homeless person. In such circumstances, homelessness may be nearly unavoidable, but providing shelter can be a big help (both in a humanitarian way and in helping with the mental/emotional problems).
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Date: 2004-07-30 04:57 pm (UTC)Eric
Date: 2005-07-31 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 07:09 pm (UTC)