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Dick Hustvedt, the consummate software engineer

By Steve Lionel (Intel) (19 posts) on April 23, 2008 at 12:52 pm

I've written a couple of "farewell" posts before, but this one is personal. I learned today that Dick Hustvedt died last week, and my heart is heavy. As I knew him, Dick was one of the principal architects and developers of the VAX/VMS operating system and a major force behind the development of the VAXcluster.

I greatly admired Dick for his brilliance, his keen sense of what it meant to design things right, and for his wicked sense of humor. Dick was famous for his elaborate pranks, including the SD730 Fixed Head Solar Horologue, a sundial with a photocell that detected noon, connected by a parallel port to the VAX-11/730 which lacked a time-of-day clock. This also inspired Dick's choice of microfortnights as the unit for the VMS SYSGEN parameter TIMEPROMPTWAIT.

As a young software engineer at DEC in the late 70s and early 80s, I looked up to Dick as a shining example of what I aspired to be. Dick believed in architecture, designing and thinking things through before building, and he was great at getting cooperation and extra effort out of the VMS team. I like to think that a little of him rubbed off on me.

Tragically, Dick suffered severe brain injury in 1984 when his car was struck in an auto accident. I visited him a couple of times afterward, at the home he shared with his wife (and DEC engineer) Audrey Reith. His son Marc wrote a memorial post which provides some more information about Dick and his life.

Rest in peace, Dick. And farewell. I'm privileged to have known you.

Categories: Software Engineering

Comments (5)

April 23, 2008 3:25 PM PDT Rick (Vectorpedia)

Dick Hustvedt was a class act............a man of dignity and respect.........he will be missed

April 25, 2008 12:00 PM PDT Dave Schmidt

I often wonder what the state of computing would be like if Dick had been able to make his full contribution to science of Computing. I too mourn his passing and wish that other would follow the high standards of software discipline that Dick required of all co-workers or even acquaintences. Dave Schmidt An Old Fartraner!

April 27, 2008 9:14 PM PDT Bob Martin

I had the honor of working with Dick at both SDS/Xerox, and at DEC. Thank you, Dick, for what you taught me.

March 1, 2009 1:07 PM PST Paul C. Anagnostopoulos

I worked in the VMS customer service group and the development group from 1980 through 1986. Dick was, indeed, a software architect and engineer par excellence. His passion for the science of software spread throughout the VMS group and caused us all to reach for heights that would not have been reached without him. He was a primary reason why VMS is such a great operating system. Rest in peace, Dick. You live on in our memories. ~~ Paul

October 1, 2009 2:22 AM PDT Troy

Not many can say they are proud of a hometown hero when you come from a town as small as Radcliff Ky, but Dick was about as close as a hero as you will ever find.......RIP my friend

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