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IC design master Bob Pease dead in car crash 1

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Skogsgurra

Skogsgurra

Electrical
Mar 31, 2003
11,815
Bob Pease died in a car crash on his way home from the memorial service for Jim Williams, a friend and likewise analogue design guru, yesterday.

In one week, we have lost two of the most proficient profiles in analogue design. I am very sad for both of them. But also glad that I had some contact with them. My lab wall has two pictures. One of Jim (his bench was my excuse) and one of Bob (my excuse not to shave every day).

Gunnar Englund
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
 
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Incredibly bad luck. He was a legend when I started out playing about with electronics - a great loss.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 
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Even I, a lowly mechy type, have communicated with Bob Pease a few times over the years. He was a smart man, gifted with the ability to communicate complex technical subjects in a way that made them easy(er) to understand. How ironic to lose two relative giants in such a way.
 
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When looking back at these guys, I am amazed by the volume of correspondance they kept going. Especially Bob was good at it. We discussed a sure way of making money once and I found the result here: half-way into the article and what impressed me most was when I received all seminar papers from him when I couldn't come to a seminar because of heart surgery. And I guess that many many more guys got this special RAP treatment. A truly generous guy.

Gunnar Englund
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
 
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I will miss him a lot. He came out and talked to me once when I showed up at National Semiconductor with a question. I didn't know who he was as I was just a noob engineer then. He was very helpful and patient.

His historical stories about tobacco tying and such, where very illuminating. His Himalaya stories were fascinating.


If ever there was an example of Hitler's Revenge!

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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Gunnar, you are immortalized.

RAP once explained to me about why an asic had been discontinued by National, and what my alternatives were. I'd sent an email to the plant asking that question, and he was the guy who knew the circuit (his design). I was sorta floored that he even bothered to call me back. We then digressed into discussions about level sensing in general (this particular asic was useful for detecting/controlling liquid levels), and methods. His discussion and digression (I distinctly recall a tired ear when our phone conversation ended) led me down a completely seperate path, which ended up being a faster, better, and (marvel of marvels) cheaper solution to my problem than where I'd started, and one that didn't require purchasing of any silicon devices more complex than a diode.
 
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Funny. Scott a friend of my son who's visiting was an I.T. guy for National and just walked thru my living room. I told him RAP had passed in a car accident. After the surprise passed, he told me Bob was hell-on-earth whenever he was called by him. As you all probably know Bob really hated computers and Microsoft. Scott related that if you hadn't solved Bob's computer question in 2 minutes or less he'd hang up and call your boss and ask for someone else. He did it to everybody there so it was sort of a inside IT membership right-or-passage.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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I can very well understand that he had that attitude. I have it myself sometimes. But I think it would be fair to use a somewhat longer time period than 2 minutes.

Simulation was really bad once when computers ran at 4.77 MHz clock. But SPICE was there. Crude, slow, with low resolution. Bob had a hell explaining to ignorants that reality was to be trusted, not SPICE. Bob once wrote that computers could be of some use as book ends. He was not impressed by computers and he was not impressed by more or less ignorant 'puter jockeys.

He assumed (bad word, you know) that most people that were paid for what they did also were as good in their trades as he was is his. So, when a not-so-bright (which is usually the case) IT support guy couldn't deliver in expected time and if Bob had a deadline to meet, I am sure he could create hell. I do. And I am sure that you also do that sometimes, Smoked.

He was a character. Yes. And that is why he is known, respected, even loved. He was a celebrity. It is a well known fact that people that get in contact with celebrities tend to gossip. This factoid about Bob creating hell on earth is a good (or bad) example of that.

We are all human, aren't we? Bob was very human.

Gunnar Englund
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
 
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Many years ago, I sent RAP a friendly 2-page letter responding to something in one of his 'Pease Porridge' columns. He wrote back with a short note scrawled directly onto the back of my original letter.

What was uniquely-Pease was that he had trimmed my two sheets of paper down into near-random shapes approximately following the outline shape of my paragraphs. Perhaps he wanted to keep the weight of his return letter to an absolute minimum.

It's tragic that he died in such circumstances. At least he enjoyed a full and very productive life, and his unique way of thinking has influenced many.
 
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Do you have any of those letters? I know I have some somewhere. His scribble gave a somewhat disorganised impression. But it worked very well. Anyone with samples?

Gunnar Englund
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Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
 
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VE1BLL

"He wrote back with a short note scrawled directly onto the back of my original letter. ...he had trimmed my two sheets of paper down into near-random shapes approximately following the outline shape of my paragraphs."

Yes! I found a few letters.
See
He was very "immediate" and I guess he had written something that he later didn't really mean and since he was always using ink, all he could do was to cut paper away.



Gunnar Englund
--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.
 
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I would have kept his scrawled note back to me, but it's probably in some random box and it'll be years before it's seen again.
 
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I went to one one of his seminars and it was how they used to say "Long on the leaf and short in the can". Any analog designer knows the importance of feedback. I wrote him and told him it was a waste of my money, took unpaid time off, traveled a distance and paid for it out of my pocket. I believe he was considering a career change to standup. The seminar had no actual technical value. References were made to the literature and what I actually saw. The letter came back with circles and arrows with comments. He noted that the picture of him throwing a PC off the National roof was the AIRBORNE ELECTRONICS. The man did hate those things. He was good natured about it and must have half agreed with me since he included a personal check for half the amount, his cut.

He passed out two posters of himself in costume. From memory, one looked like a 1900's military band leader and the other a Russian fur trapper. This shows the importance of having a really goof PR guy. Shortly after this a newspaper had a good size picture of a wizard at a festival. It looked just like Bob and would have made a better poster. It went up on the wall with my only other two pictures, Steinmetz & Einstein together, and a Bedard poster Sitting Duck (duck on a beach blanket surrounded by gators). Each holds meaning. Hope no one takes this the wrong way. Its great that Bob had a celebrity phase. Been a long time reader of Bob's column and he will always be on my wall.
 
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