In Memory of Doug Tygar
Professor Doug Tygar passed away unexpectedly on January 16, 2020.
Doug was a valued community member, teacher, and researcher. His work made unique and significant contributions to the fields of usable computer security, cryptography, privacy, and digital rights management. As a colleague, his sharp sense of humor, infectious laugh, and encyclopedic knowledge of all things Berkeley are irreplaceable. He will be sorely missed.
We invite you to share your memories of and tributes to Doug Tygar.
we were friendly, would say hello, would pick up each other's mail, that kind of thing. he was a bit older than me i think -- i had just graduated college and he was already a professor, i guess -- and one night he invited me out to dinner, i think we went to the chinese place in squirrel hill, and he paid, which i remember because i was mostly broke around that time and it was gentlemanly of him.
and i also remember that he somehow, gently, broached the subject of my chaotic relationship with my then-girlfried, and somehow, gently pointed out that it didn't seem very healthy. i imagine he heard fighting through the walls, or in the stairwell -- somehow he had correctly deduced that we were a messy, messed-up couple.
and while i was too young and dumb to take his advice (or, at the same time, that of my parents and friends), and the relationship eventually ended on its own, i think back to the courage, the generosity, the care and the concern that he would find a way to take me out to dinner and ever so gently try to help me see (even though i couldn't yet) that what i was doing was unhealthy.
what a lovely human being and what a sad loss--my heart goes out to his family, and i hope it brings you a smile to think that back in 1996, your beloved doug was caring enough to take a messy young kid out to dinner and try to offer some life wisdom. i just found this because my son is now a CS major and i remember doug was into cryptography and thought i would see where he was and show my son what an academic career in CS might look like.
thank you, doug, for caring about me when i was young and confused.
He was a wonderful man, kind and caring. And what a beautiful mind! I loved auditing his courses...he was so clever and sharp! I really admired him. I am so sad I will never see him again.
Good bye my friend! You will be missed
I had Professor Tygar for Fundamental Structures of Computing I at CMU back in Spring 1988, as a freshman. I didn't understand something and went to his office hours. He patiently explained the topic to me. As I was leaving, he asked me to wait and reached into a cardboard box. He pulled out a copy of David Harel's "Algorithmics" book, handed it to me, and said I might enjoy it.
That helped start me down a path to being a computer science professor myself. More importantly, it taught me what encouragement from a professor can mean in the life of a young person. To this day, I routinely reach to my shelf and pull down books to "loan" to undergraduates and graduate students. I get back about 70% back, but that's hardly the point.
Doug was a new professor when I was new grad student at CMU. He was very kind to me, teaching me mathy things about, e.g., random number generators I probably wouldn't have otherwise learned, and gently pointing out some obvious flaws in some early versions of some garbage-collection work I was doing. I always thought he was one of the very smartest people I got to work with (at least a little), in a career where I've been very privileged in that way.
Through a love of literature and film, Doug's amazing collection has been donated to our non profit, Hope Services, by Doug's wife in his memory.
I trust that those who knew Doug and his wife will find no surprise that the donation of incredible books is living on his life on touching the lives of an additional 3500 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout bay area counties that we serve.
His legacy will live through thousands of incredible lives and thank you for your incredible generosity.
The deepest condolences from the whole Hope Services / Green Street Books team.