I never worked with Jim Gray. During my year at Microsoft, where Jim also worked, I had the pleasure of attending one internal discussion he led. He exchanged a few emails with me on another project I led. One of the amazing things about Jim was how he made everyone even remotely connected to him feel like they knew him well.

Read the short account of his farewell tribute in this month’s ACM. It’s a marvelous human interest story. If you’re interested in humanity, you won’t be disappointed.

I’m not sure what’s more impressive, Jim’s accomplishments as a computer scientist or as a human being. His is a wonderful story.