[Sighfis-l] Allen Kent, anohter long time IS&T leader passes away.

[Richard Hill]

We received this morning that Dr. Allen Kent, Distinguished Service
Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, passed away at 92 years.

 

Dick Hill

 

Age 92, on Thursday, May 1, 2014, helped change the world through his
pioneering work in computer technology. Born in Harlem, New York, in 1921,
Kent was the son a a tailor. He attended City College of New York. Studying
chemistry and served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Following
the war, he became an editor of technical manuscripts, which led to a
legendary career in information science. Enlisted to participate in a
classified project at MIT, he helped develop a system for mechanically
encoding key words to help find specific bits of information within large
documents, the precursor of today's internet search engines. At Western
Reserve University, he helped establish the first academic program in the
field of mechanized information retrieval, first using cards, then utilizing
new reel-to-reel tape technology. Kent's 1959 article for Harper's Magazine,
"A Machine That Does Research," was among the first pieces in the national
popular press explaining to Americans how their lives would soon be changed
by electronic information technology. In 1963, he founded and became
Director of the Knowledge Availability Systems Center at the University of
Pittsburgh. He was also Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Department of
Information Science and Head of Communications Programs. Early in his Pitt
tenure, he served as an advisor to the Kennedy White House regarding the
creation of a National Information Storage and Retrieval Network. A prolific
writer and editor, Kent wrote the Encyclopedia of Library and Information
Science, the Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, and the
Encyclopedia of Microcomputers.

 

__________

NEW ADDRESS AS OF Feb. 16, 2014

Richard Hill

ASIS&T Executive Director

8555 16th Street, Suite 850

Silver Spring, MD 20910-3560

FAX: (301) 495-0810

Voice: (301) 495-0900

rhill at asis.org

 

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