So sad.
Posted on 03/24/2006 3:03:01 PM PST by Borges
Paul A. Flaherty, a computer engineer who helped create the pioneering AltaVista online search engine, has died. He was 42.
Flaherty died March 16 of a heart attack at his home in Belmont, Calif., about 20 miles south of San Francisco, family members said Friday.
Flaherty came up with the idea of indexing Web pages that made the AltaVista search engine one of the most popular Internet search tools in the mid-1990s.
"He was such a warm and loving man, and he was exceptionally smart," his brother, Michael, said Friday. "It's just uncanny to find someone with that much intellectual power but that much warmth, too."
Flaherty was working as a research engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation in Palo Alto when he teamed up with two other staff researchers in 1995 to develop AltaVista's technology.
The Web site was made public in December 1995 and within weeks was processing several million searches a day. It was spun off from Digital Equipment as a private company in 1999.
Flaherty served as director for technical strategy at AltaVista until leaving in 2000 to work in management consulting. Before his death, he was vice president for product development at TalkPlus, a telecommunications software company in Menlo Park.
Born in Milwaukee and raised in Minnesota, Flaherty earned a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1994 from Stanford University and never quite shook his Midwest roots despite his success in Silicon Valley, Michael Flaherty said.
"I never saw him taking to the more cutthroat lifestyle in Silicon Valley," his brother said.
He is survived by his wife, Natasha Flaherty of Belmont; his parents, James Sr. and Ruth Flaherty of Fargo, N.D.; and four brothers.
A funeral mass and burial is scheduled for Tuesday in Fargo.
AltaVista was my search engine of choice for many years. It allowed the use of hierarchical Boolean and regular expressions searches, something the vaunted google still doesn't have.
Imagine if Digital Research hadn't blown their lead in search engines. They would still be company.
Very young for a heart attack, though it happens. AV was also my favorite search engine in the early years. I always thought they very badly missed the boat during the 'net frenzy '99 - '01 by not going IPO. Weren't they bought by Dave Wetherell from CMGI? There's a stock trading at 1% of its former price.
Genetic RIP
I still use Alta Vista occasionally when Google doesn't turn up what I'm looking for...and AV usually finds it for me.
off to the big search engine in the sky..
RIP Paul ....
RIP
So he was a FReeper? All the more reason to mourn his passing.
Indeed.
At least, I'm 99.99% sure that HolgerDansk == Paul Flaherty.
Last October, he wrote a post stating that he had helped clean up in the aftermath of the first internet worm in the late 80's while at Stanford. He expressed displeasure that the author of that worm, one Robert Tappan Morris, got off with a wrist slap. I couldn't resist posting a reply noting RTM's subsequent good fortune as an internet entrepreneuer.
I also clicked on HolgerDansk's freeper info and, using the technology he pioneered to follow the clues therein, quickly discovered his identity and background. So, when I saw the news item on his passing, the thought popped into my head, "Hey, isn't that that freeper I looked up a while ago?". I couldn't remember his screen name, so I had to go back through my own posts to find it.
Anyway, his last post was on 16 March, the date of his death.
An additional piece of evidence: this article recites that Flaherty was originally from Milwaukee. Not too deep into HolgerDansk's posting history he mentions that he, HolgerDansk, headed up a fraternity in Milwaukee many years ago.
I would imagine there are quite a few nationally noteworthy or celebrated FReepers clinging to anonymity here.
Let me clear up that 0.01%.
I am his older brother.
Why the name Holger Dansk? My father's grandfather was Danish and all of the jolly round features of the Danes went to Paul. Gustav Mikkleson was a locomotive engineer on the Green Bay & Western RR.
(Funny story; Paul was in Copenhagen once to give a speech for DEC, one of hundreds he gave around the world. He was talking outside on the sidewalk with one of his hosts when an elderly woman approached and started reading Paul out in Danish. After she had her say and moved on, Paul asked his laughing host what that was all about. Apparently, the woman had told Paul that Danes should only speak Danish while in Denmark and not English!)
According to Danish legend, Holger Dansk is a sleeping Viking warrior who will awake to defend the homeland if Denmark is ever threatened.
It is a little disconcerting to read news articles of your brother's passing, (the AP is interviewing our father today for another story), but it speaks to the magnitude of the man.
Thank you for all of your kind thoughts.
God bless your brother's family; God bless you and your family. God bless your parents for the good and gracious men they blessed this nation with.
I was surprised to get a call from an AP reporter on Friday and asked "How do you think your brother would like to be remembered?". I had to think for a bit, but I knew that the answer was related to who he was, not what he had accomplished. Paul's accomplishments were many, but I think it speaks volumes that I'm only learning about some of them now. He liked to talk about his hobbies and ask how things were going in my life. He never dwelled on how he would conquer the world with his latest act of technical genius; or if he did talk about such things, it was simply because they were "neat-o".
I'm crushed. I will miss him so much.
Thank you for sharing that kind, wise, and poignant tribute to your brother.
DEC ping!
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