A Bob Pease photo gallery
Here are some pictures I have of Bob Pease. Fran Hoffart took many of them, I took a few.
This is my favorite picture of Bob Pease. He is at a park or company function at National Semiconductor. EXIF data show it to be 2002. He is with co-worker Ed Fong, who is with his children. You can really see the kindness and warmth Bob had as he admires Ed’s kids.
.
Here is a picture that Fran Hoffart scanned for his photo booklet at our celebration of life for Bob and Jim Williams.
.
Here is another old paper photo that Fran Hoffart scanned for us.
.
Here is Bob Pease and his lovely wife Nancy. She was in their summer house in Cape Cod when Bob passed away.
.
g
When Bob and I presented at Arrowfest in Phoenix we took a hike in the hills behind The Point Resort. Bob did not want to stay there, he thought the rooms too expensive. But the function was there and I didn’t want to see him having to take a cab to the event. I convinced Bob to share a double suite with me. It was cheaper than individual rooms at a cheap hotel, and it was easy to get to the function in the morning or the room at night. It was one of the few good ideas I gave Bob instead of the other way around.
.
Here is Bob in his Czar of Bandgaps costume. National Semi rented the costume for a day. I still have a signed poster that they handed out. Bob always went along with these marketing initiatives, he enjoyed it.
.
Here is another picture taken in 2002, at the same park as the first photo with Ed Fong. I suspect this was a company communication meeting at the 17-acre park National owns next to the campus. It might also be a birthday for Bob, he would have been 60 in 2002.
.
Here is a picture I took at Tasty Subs, a hangout for my analog pals. Bob met me there so I could buy two copies of Bo Lojek’s great book, the History of Semiconductor Engineering. Bob edited the book for Bo. Lojek is Czech by birth and he needed someone to do a lot of correcting of grammar and to use colloquial English. Bob did all this without asking for credit, he certainly did not get paid. He just believed in the book. I was glad to see he got to hang out with Bo at EDN’s first Analog Aficionado party in 2010.
.
Here is a shot of Bob at Arrowfest, I can’t remember what city. He was really fun and we got to be good pals travelling around the country and the world.
.
Here is another shot at that Arrowfest seminar. You can see a copy of Bob’s book, How to drive into accidents, and how not to. Some sleazebag auto “journalist” has already blogged about the irony of Bob dieing from a car crash after writing the book. The thing is, Bob hit the first tree on steep driveway out of the parking lot of the Mountain Winery where he had shown up late for Jim Williams memorial. Bob had walked up the hill to the event and back down to the parking lot, and most likely had a stroke or heart attack as he left. He was not conscious when he left the road. It was not really an accident the way most people think of it, as something that Bob could have avoided. Oh, also– Bob showed up way late, the function was over, I waved to him as I drove my motorcycle out of the parking lot. He was not at the memorial, he missed it. There was no alcohol available, it had been put away an hour earlier. His wife tells me he was at work that day, which is the only thing that would have made him late– Bob was working with the National web group on three hot projects.
.
Here is a really old shot of Bob from the Jan 1970 cover of the EEE, the predecessor to the IEEE.
Deepti commented:
Please help. I'm doing a bit of coursework, and I am iahvng ALOT of trouble trying to display an image (using else if), when a person clicks submit. You see, I've googled many tutorials learning how to display an image in php, but they suck. heres a snipped of one else if of mine.else if($pick == seating ){$price = $seating * $quantity;$theTax = $seating * $quantity * 0.2;$vatPrice = $seating * $quantity * 1.2;*syntax to upload image*}Any guidance? I have 5 days left. pls rply :/
anurag commented:
the beauty of analog...
Duncan Bremner commented:
I only found out about Bob's death today; very sad.
I worked for NS in the UK design group and had the privilege of working with him for a short while. Bob arrived over to work on a project and took exception to the squeaky office door. Next day he arrives with a can of oil (which he had to specially purchase specially). He was a hoot to work with; mad as a box of frogs.
In Scotland we have a toast:-
Here's tae us -
Wha's like us -
Damn few -
And they're a' deid -
Mairs the pity!
Bob, RIP
Paul Pacini commented:
I never met Bob, but sure wish I had. I first learned of him reading his articles in Electronic Design (in print – before the ‘net). I remember thinking, who is this guy challenging other engineers' designs or design work? I soon realized he was quite brilliant and that his challenges weren’t to attack, but to question the status-quo and to be skeptical using curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom instead of blindly accepting what was published based on authors’ authority. He was part of my early introduction to being a skeptic – something I still cherish to this day. I owe Bob for some of that and his “What’s all this … stuff, anyway?” Having read so many heart-felt comments left at various sites, I see I’m not the only person he influenced.
Still, I can’t help but wonder, would the outcome of his car accident been different had he been driving a modern vehicle with seatbelts and airbags. Even unconscious, crumple zones and airbags could have reduced impact trauma substantially. I know this may be awful to bring up, and I mean no disrespect, but old cars without seatbelts (or, so I read, his were in disrepair), just because they get decent gas mileage, are still very dangerous. I can’t help but wonder if the outcome could have been different and this tragedy prevented. I know nothing can be changed, but it’s still saddens me.
Thank you, Bob, for your fantastic contributions to the world, and to skepticism and analog engineering specifically.
Bill Bowen commented:
Just found out about Bob's death today. I first met him at a National Semi seminar in Cleveland in 1977. Bob was living proof that enginners are NOT dull (you could use many words to describe Bob, but dull is NOT one of them). The seminar was very informative but even more inspirational. Bob, rest in peace & know there are many of us that where inspired by your knowledge, energy & your love of analog.
Scott T commented:
I met Bob at a Motorola event sponsored by National, as a very young engineer...I remember thinking "this is a waste of time, get back to work..." I didn't...it was THE most entertaining, interesting and captivating discussion on analog I'd ever seen, before or since. I walked a way with a career's worth of inspiration for all this analog stuff...anyway. Thanks Bob, God bless.
Maggie Speers commented:
Rumballs.... I remember out of all the engineering drama, he made the best rumballs for our holiday parties!
Canada Kev commented:
I feel like I lost a father figure. I started working in the 80's and my "older" analog colleague introduced me to him. I feel Bob (and my colleague) made me a better designer. I will miss his columns. (He even published one of my repsonses one time which I still have). RIP Bob and thanks for all your contibutions to Engineering and Life.
Ken Neltnor commented:
My best memories of Bob were his response to a researcher who built a ball on beam balancer using a 100 MHz 486 running a fuzzy logic algorithm. Bob was able to duplicate the same performance using a quad op amp PID controller.
A great guy, I will miss his insights
Jeff LaCoss commented:
Bob Pease was really someone I would like to have met. What a character. Didn't he contribute to the Silicon Gulch Gazette, a newsletter put out by National back in the 70s?
