Thomas E. Kurtz
Thomas E. Kurtz | |
|---|---|
Kurtz, c. 1970s | |
| Born | Thomas Eugene Kurtz February 22, 1928 Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 12, 2024 (aged 96) Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Education | Knox College (BA) Princeton University (PhD) |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | |
| Spouses | Patricia Barr
(m. 1953; div. 1973)Agnes Seelye Bixler (m. 1974) |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | 1974 AFIPS Pioneer Award 1991 IEEE Computer Science Pioneer Award |
Thomas Eugene Kurtz (February 22, 1928 – November 12, 2024) was an American computer scientist and educator. A Dartmouth professor of mathematics, he and colleague John G. Kemeny are best known for co-developing the BASIC programming language and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System in 1963 and 1964. These innovations made computing more accessible by simplifying programming for non-experts and allowing multiple users to share a single computer, transforming how computers were used in education and research.
For his role in creating BASIC, the IEEE honored Kurtz in 1991 with the Computer Pioneer Award, and in 1994, he was inducted as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.