In Memoriam
Arthur Gill
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Emeritus
UC Berkeley
1930-2020
Arthur Gill was a faculty member in the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) for more than three decades; he belonged to both the electrical engineering and computer science units when the new EECS unit was formed. He passed away on March 21, 2020.
Arthur was born in Haifa, Israel, on April 18, 1930. From 1948 to 1950, he served in the Israeli armed forces. He received B.S. (1955) and M.S. degrees (1956) in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he was awarded his Ph.D. in the same field from UC Berkeley in 1959.
From 1956 to 1957, he worked at the Research Division of the Raytheon Company in Waltham, MA, where he was engaged primarily with semiconductor circuitry design. From 1958 to 1960, he was a member of the Advanced Programming Development Division of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, where he worked on the development of the G-15 computer.
From 1959 until his retirement in 1991, Gill served as a faculty member at UC Berkeley – first as an assistant professor and later as associate professor and professor – in EECS. In this capacity he taught courses and supervised research in network analysis and synthesis, communication theory, system theory, and computer science. From 1981 to 1991, he also served as assistant dean for undergraduate affairs in the College of Engineering.
During his Berkeley tenure, he also travelled widely and worked internationally. From 1962 to 1963, Gill participated in the Kanpur Indo-American Program, under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development in India, where he contributed to the development of the electrical engineering curriculum and laboratories in the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He became a guest lecturer in the International Summer School on Automata Theory in Ravello, Italy, in 1964 and spent the 1965-66 academic year at the Centro Di Cibernatica of the University of Naples as a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1970, he was a visiting professor in the postgraduate engineering school of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
He authored several books: Introduction to the Theory of Finite-State Machines (McGraw-Hill, 1962), Linear Sequential Circuits: Analysis, Synthesis and Applications (McGraw-Hill, 1967), Applied Algebra for the Computer Sciences (Prentice-Hall, 1976), and Machine and Assembly Language Programming of the PDP-11 (Prentice-Hall, 1976 and 1983). He also coauthored Assembly Language Programming for the 68000 (Prentice-Hall, 1987). Most of these books were translated into Russian and Chinese. He also authored numerous journal articles in the areas of systems and computer sciences.
Arthur Gill was an avid world traveler and made treks in the Himalayas, the Andes, Antarctica, and other regions.
Arthur was preceded in death by his first wife Rikki, and by Velta, his wife of 32 years, who died of cancer in 1998. He is survived by his two children, Jonathan Gill and Leori Gill, by his three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and by his long-time partner, Marijke vanDoorn Lawler.
Jeff Bokor
John Canny
2020
Arthur was born in Haifa, Israel, on April 18, 1930. From 1948 to 1950, he served in the Israeli armed forces. He received B.S. (1955) and M.S. degrees (1956) in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he was awarded his Ph.D. in the same field from UC Berkeley in 1959.
From 1956 to 1957, he worked at the Research Division of the Raytheon Company in Waltham, MA, where he was engaged primarily with semiconductor circuitry design. From 1958 to 1960, he was a member of the Advanced Programming Development Division of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, where he worked on the development of the G-15 computer.
From 1959 until his retirement in 1991, Gill served as a faculty member at UC Berkeley – first as an assistant professor and later as associate professor and professor – in EECS. In this capacity he taught courses and supervised research in network analysis and synthesis, communication theory, system theory, and computer science. From 1981 to 1991, he also served as assistant dean for undergraduate affairs in the College of Engineering.
During his Berkeley tenure, he also travelled widely and worked internationally. From 1962 to 1963, Gill participated in the Kanpur Indo-American Program, under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development in India, where he contributed to the development of the electrical engineering curriculum and laboratories in the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He became a guest lecturer in the International Summer School on Automata Theory in Ravello, Italy, in 1964 and spent the 1965-66 academic year at the Centro Di Cibernatica of the University of Naples as a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1970, he was a visiting professor in the postgraduate engineering school of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
He authored several books: Introduction to the Theory of Finite-State Machines (McGraw-Hill, 1962), Linear Sequential Circuits: Analysis, Synthesis and Applications (McGraw-Hill, 1967), Applied Algebra for the Computer Sciences (Prentice-Hall, 1976), and Machine and Assembly Language Programming of the PDP-11 (Prentice-Hall, 1976 and 1983). He also coauthored Assembly Language Programming for the 68000 (Prentice-Hall, 1987). Most of these books were translated into Russian and Chinese. He also authored numerous journal articles in the areas of systems and computer sciences.
Arthur Gill was an avid world traveler and made treks in the Himalayas, the Andes, Antarctica, and other regions.
Arthur was preceded in death by his first wife Rikki, and by Velta, his wife of 32 years, who died of cancer in 1998. He is survived by his two children, Jonathan Gill and Leori Gill, by his three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and by his long-time partner, Marijke vanDoorn Lawler.
Jeff Bokor
John Canny
2020
