RIP: Robert Spinrad

His name rang a bell when I saw it on the front page of the New York Times website but I may have been imagining it. But I did read his obituary there and I would say through his work/leadership at Xerox’s PARC, he is indirectly responsible for the GUI (Apple got assistance from there), Ethernet and laser printers (those are a logical offspring of photocopiers). Dr. Spinrad also helped lay down the groundwork to get computers to assist scientists in research and analysis.