CSE Prof Emeritus John Carr dies at 74

Computer Science Professor Emeritus John Carr died Tuesday at the age of 73 from complications due to cancer. A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. in suite 470 of the 3401 Walnut complex. School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Gregory Farrington described Carr's death as a "real loss to the school." Carr arrived at the University in 1962 after teaching at the University of Michigan. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University in 1943 and his formal training in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a master's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in Mathematics in 1951. Although he began his work at Penn as an electrical engineer, he soon moved to the Computer Science Department, which was quickly growing with the development of ENIAC. "He was one of the pioneers in the computing field," said Engineering Professor Noah Prywes, a colleague and friend of Carr. Indeed, Carr contributed to some of the earliest publications on the topic as both the founding editor of the Journal of Computing Machinery, and editor of Journal of Computing Languages. In addition, he was a founder of the Association of Computing Machinery and co-author of computing handbooks dating back to the 1950s. Although Carr was a "leader that always looked ahead towards the future," he always made time for his students, Prywes said. "He was really interested in his students and really cared about how he could help them," Prywes said. He added that Carr was "always forthright. He always cared very much about being fair." It was perhaps for these reasons that he was such a beloved professor. "He was very much liked by his students," Pyres said. In between developing computer programming and software and teaching, Carr led an active existence. "He loved to ski and play tennis," Betsey Carr, his daughter, said. "Knowing that he had such a full life makes his death easier to handle," she added. The family had been preparing for the worst since Carr went to the hospital for blood clots in February and was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. "My mother and I spent a lot of time nursing him in the last few weeks," Betsy Carr said. A native of Durham, N.C., Carr was a descendent of a long Southern lineage that continues back to Thomas Jefferson. Carr -- "whose heart was in the south" -- displayed his heritage with his Southern gentility. "He was a gentleman of real style," Farrington recalled. Carr's family, which includes his wife Esther, three children and five grandchildren, hope to bury him in North Carolina near his parents.