[ih] Yngvar Lunch has died -- the memorial service is tomorrow

[Vint Cerf]

Thanks for sharing this, Dave.

Yngvar and Paal Spilling were key players in the Arpanet and Internet
efforts in Norway. Bob Kahn and Yngvar worked together to get the satellite
link for the Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR) system shared with Arpanet
and doubled in capacity to 9.6 kb/s. A further link was made to get to
University College London where Peter Kirstein's lab was located. There was
a huge flap about connecting military use circuits to the commercial
British system - Bob Kahn knows that story better than I because he was the
primary DARPA POC for the negotiation. Yngvar was my choice to demonstrate
the experimental packet voice system to some generals in the Pentagon.
Duane Adams had developed the Linear Predictive Code with 10 parameters
(LPC-10) as a way to reduce capacity required for packet speech from 64
kb/s to 1800 b/s. But you sounded like a drunken Norwegian. So of course, I
got Yngvar to demonstrate the system, first through the AUTOVON switched
voice network used by the US military at the time and then through the
packet voice system - sounded the same :-))).  Yngvar was our go-to person
for the early connectivity of Arpanet to Europe. He and especially Paal
Spilling worked on TCP and Paal came to the US (SRI) for a time in the late
1970s.

Bob Kahn told me a story about picking raspberries and maybe blackberries
in Yngvar's back yard. Bob's comment was that these fruits were infinitely
miscible in people [look it up.. :-) ]

I will miss Yngvar's cheerful, willing and able attitude. The memory of his
formative contributions to the Arpanet and Internet stories temper his loss
to the world.

v


On Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 7:43 AM dave walden via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Internet pioneer Yngvar Lundh has died.
>
> With Paal Spilling, Yngvar led Norway into the Internet world. The
> following paper which Yngvar gave me in early 2019 is his and Paal's
> story of their contribution.
>
> https://walden-family.com/spilling-lundh-InternetHistory-final-2-VC%20edits.pdf
> I will leave this on my website for a while.  I don't know where it was
> published.
>
> Following is the death announcement from his local newspaper.
>
> What I can make out from the announcement follows:
>
> =================================
> image of boat -- Yngvar had a sailboat
>
> good kind Yngvar, husband, father, grandfather and uncle
> something about being in own home at death
>
> his name and day he died
>
> in a little while it will be so quiet here
> in a little while it will be over
> you got to see what you wanted
> you got to hear your melody
>
> in a little while
> we will be gone
> we may see each other again
>
> Bente (wife)
> Lise (daughter I assume)
> I guess the others are the nephew and grandson
>
> where and when the funeral service will be -- Valle church
>
> something about flowers for the church's mission??
>
> see the memorial page on the (funeral home) website -- I could not find
> a memorial page for Yngvar
>
> =================
>
> You can use google translate to read the following:
>
> https://snl.no/Yngvar_Lundh
>
> A piece by him published in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
> in 2018
> https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2018/02/man2018020062/13rRUytWFbd
> begins with this introduction by the Annals department editor:
>
> Yngvar Lundh was instrumental in the development of some of Norway’s
> earliest digital computers, having started his investigation of digital
> electronics in the 1950s. He continued his involvement with digital
> computers and digital communications for the next 40 years. A 10 April
> 2017 article about Lundh in the Norwegian online information and
> telecommunications newspaper digi.no quotes another pioneer of Norwegian
> computing, saying, “Yngvar Lundh is the most important person in
> Norwegian IT ever.”
>
> Yngvar was a wonderful man and greatly respected in Norway as the father
> or Norwegian digital computing.  I first met Yngvar when I worked for
> Norsk Data in 1970-71. He was with the Norwegian Defense Research
> Establishment.  I met him again in Oslo, London, etc., during the early
> Internet days.  Over the years I saw him a few more times, including in
> 2017 when he invited my wife and me to visit him in his home overlooking
> the Oslo Fjord in Tornsberg where we talked about sail boats. I
> corresponded with him by email a few times a year.  I learned the news
> of Yngvar's death when I sent an email to him a few days ago about
> early-days computing at MIT and he didn't respond.  I asked friends in
> Norway if they knew if he was having health problems and the shocking
> news above came back.  I will miss him.
>
> --
> Internet-history mailing list
> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>


-- 
Please send any postal/overnight deliveries to:
Vint Cerf
1435 Woodhurst Blvd
McLean, VA 22102
703-448-0965

until further notice