In Memoriam

Paul Carl Gilmore, BA’49

December 5, 1925 – April 8, 2015
Paul Carl GilmoreA much-loved husband, father, grandfather and uncle, Paul passed away peacefully at home with his wife of 61 years by his side. He is survived by his wife, Maryke; his children, Ian, BA’80, and Karen, BA ’81; his daughter-in-law, Tenley Cronin and son-in-law, Rob Van Nus; as well as his cherished grandchildren, Thomas, Eric, Jenny and Allie. He was predeceased by his siblings Bob, John and Molly.

Paul was born in Lethbridge, grew up in Vancouver, and served in the RCAF. When he was discharged, he was able to attend UBC thanks to an RCAF scholarship, and he graduated after only three years with a double honours degree in math and physics. His success at UBC earned him a scholarship to Cambridge (St. John’s College), where he did his master’s, and then went on to do his doctorate at Amsterdam University and post-doctorate work at the University of Toronto. After a brief period as an assistant professor in mathematics at Penn State, Paul joined the IBM Research Lab in Yorktown Heights, NY. His work during the years at IBM covered many areas of research, and he was recognized for one of his research projects with the Lanchester Prize, one of the leading prizes in Operations Research. Paul returned with his family to Vancouver in 1977 to become head of the Computer Science department at UBC. At UBC, he put in place some foundations which enabled the department to grow and flourish, including establishing the first consolidated space for the department and implementing student enrollment software which is still used today. His IBM experience led him to develop contacts between his department and the young computer industry in the Vancouver business world—some of the initial outreach by the university. After his retirement from UBC in 1989, Paul continued his research and work, and published a book in 2005 which pulled together many of the themes from his work. For his work over the years, Paul was recognized by the IBM Centers for Advanced Studies as a Canadian pioneer in computing. Paul was a scientist and a logician, who loved the arts and the outdoors, and was a wonderful loving family man and a good friend to many. Donations in his memory will be welcomed by the Christ Church Cathedral Building Fund (http://raisetheroof.thecathedral.ca) and the UBC Bursary Endowment Fund (http://memorial.supporting.ubc.ca/paul-gilmore).