A lot of letters with condolences from many people of all the world came to the Institute last week. We put here just part of them. We apologize for we cannot put Cyrilic messages in the list, you can see them in the Russian page.
Viktor Sabelfeld
Igor Vasilievich Pottosin left us...
I lost a good friend from Russia who worked alongside me. We wrote joint papers, but also had a wonderful time together wherever we met: in Akademgorodok, Tomsk, Paris or Siegen. He taught me to forgive. How sad all that is over.
We lost an excellent scientist, an open-minded person, strong in spirit and simple in behavior.
I will always remember him.
Please convey my deepest condolences to those close to Igor Vasilievich.
Staff Member of the Department of Programming in 1971-1991
Viktor Sabelfeld
Karlsruhe, Germany
18/12/2001
Michael I. Schwartzman
I was saddened and very sorry to hear about Igor Pottosin passing away.
An honest man, a wonderful friend of many and a delight to be with, Igor will live in my heart for his inherent goodness and his unbound kindness.
May he rest in peace, and may those that he left be consoled by the knowledge of how many of us stopped and cried at the news that he is no longer with us.
Staff Member of the Department of Programming, (1970-1973)
Michael I. Schwartzman, President
ValueSearch Capital Management, L.L.C.
Janis Barzdins
I would like to express my deepest condolences to Igor's Vasilievich family, to his colleagues. I will always remember him as an excellent scientist and human.
Janis Barzdins
Riga, Latvia
Frieda Fenske-Swetlakowa
Mi sostradajem vmeste s Vami (vsemi bivshimi kollegami) v svjasi so smertju Igorja Vasiljevitcha.
Virasite nashe iskrenneje sobolesnowanije rodnim i bliskim.
Mi vchera vspominali o visite Igorja Vasiljewicha k nam vesnoj 1998. On jeshje tak molodo wigljadel i bil molod dushoj. Sdesj fotografija na fone russkoj cerkvi. On bil siljno udivlen, kogda mi jego priveli v uchozhennuju i dejstvujushuju pravoslavnuju cerkovj v nashem gorodke.
S iskrennim soboleznowanijem Valentin i Frida Swetlakovi, a takzhe nasha Dotch Tatjana, kotoraja navestila Igorja Vasiljevicha doma na Zhemtchuzhnoj proshlim letom budutchi v Akademgorodke.
Staff Member of the Department of Programming and IIS,
Frieda Fenske-Swetlakowa
Niklaus Wirth
I am very sad to hear that Igor Pottosin has passed away.
He was such a competent director and such a kind and likable friend! The last time I met him was at Tony Hoare's retirement symposium at Oxford in Sept. 2000. I will always remember him fondly. I just looked up my photo album, and there is a picture of him, you and me at your home. Please accept my sincere condolences.
With kind regards,
Niklaus Wirth
Switzerland
Alexander Dikovsky
It is a loss, a great loss... Igor Vasilievich is one of those who created the siberian computer science community, who invested so much to its flourishing, who has done his best in hard time.The creators leave us, and it is so sad, so keenly felt nowadays. I will always remember him, so simple and open-minded as he was, his gentle smile, his charming manner to speak to you, his friendliness winning the hearts. Someone good has left...
Please convey my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Igor Vasilievich. As they say in Russia : "Pust' zemlja emu budet puhom. Horoshij byl chelovek."
Alexander Dikovsky,
Former Staff Member of the Institute of Mathematics SB
RAS,
Nantes, France
17/12/2001
Kurlyandchiks
Our condolences to evrebody.
Kurlyandchiks
Manfred Broy
I am sad and shocked to hear about the death of Igor Pottosin. I am feeling with you, you colleagues and his family.
Manfred Broy,
TUM, Munich, Germany
Yuri Gurevich
Sorry to hear the sad news. Moi iskrennie soboleznovania!
Yuri Gurevich, Microsoft, USA
Reino Kurki-Suonio
Sorry to hear the sad news. Please convey my condolences to his family.
Reino Kurki-Suonio, Helsinki, Finland
Bernhard Moeller
This is very sad news indeed. Be sure of my sympathy.
Bernhard Moeller,
University of Augsburg, Germany
Egidio Astesiano
That is a really sad news. Please participate to all your colleagues my deepest sorrow for a great loss.
Egidio Astesiano,
Genova, Italy
Hanspeter Mossenboeck
I still think warmly about Igor who was a good computer scientist and and a great colleague.
Hanspeter Mossenboeck,
University of Linz, Austria
Vladimir Sazonov
Moi glubokie soboleznovanija vsem, kto ljubil i znal Igorja Pottosina po rabote i v zhizni, ego rodnym i blizkim. Eto gromadnaja poterja dlja vseh nas. On u menja stoit pered glazami, kogda vspominaju nashu poslednjuju vstrechu s nim na PSI'01.
Vladimir Sazonov,
Manchester, UK
Masahiro Miyakawa
I am very sad receiving your email informing that our precious person: Igor Vasilievic Pottosin passed away on December 16, 2001. Please accept my condolences. Please give them to his children and relatives.
In my memory he remains young as we saw each other so many years ago. I regret I could not see him recent years. I was shown a photo where very young Igor Vasilievich was shown with Andrei Petrovich and with other persons. Seemingly it was taken in the early 1960's or even in late 1950's in
Akademogorodok (my honorable alte heimat). It is most impressive that their faces are bright. There is another unforgetable scene in my eyes: in the seminer he appears reading his memorandum always
written on the computer punch cards. He was so kind to me. It was my joy to receive from him a new year greeting in which he always added some news.
I am shaken; we lost him. Yes, our lives go on. This is a big loss for us. Still, we should continue our lives.
Cordially yours,
Masahiro Miyakawa
Tsukuba, Japan
Niklaus Wirth
I am very sad to hear that Igor Pottosin has passed away. He was such a competent director and such a kind and likable friend! The last time I met him was at Tony Hoare's retirement symposium at Oxford in Sept. 2000. I will always remember him fondly. I just looked up my photo album, and there is a picture of him, you and me at your home. Please accept my sincere condolences.
Niklaus Wirth
Lucy Chernobrod
Convey my deepest condolences, please to the family and friends of Igor Vasilyevich Pottosin.
"Stoit VC promezhdu sosen,
I slaven v neym IV Pottosin"
Lucy Chernobrod,
Former Staff Member of the Department of Programming,
Oracle, California, USA
Alex Shafarenko
Gluboko opechalen izvestiem o konchine Professora Pottosina. Igor' Vasil'evich byl krupnym uchenym, vydayushchimsja pedagogom i nesravnennym otkryvatelem molodyh talantov. Nam vsem budet ego ochen' nehvatat'. Moi soboleznovanija rodnym i blizkim.
Prof Alex Shafarenko
Department of Computer Science
University of Hertfordshire, England
Vladimir Safonov
Please pass my deepest condolences to Igor Pottosin's family, to all of his friends in Novosibirsk and at the Institute of Informatics Systems, Siberian Branch of RAS.
We all will dramatically miss Igor Pottosin, the Lord and the Gentleman of Programming, the great Supporter and Friend for all of us. We'll keep our memory on Igor in our hearts and souls. We appreciate such a great person as Igor has lived and worked together with all of us.
Vladimir Safonov,
St.-Petersurg
Peter Pepper
This is indeed sad news. I have had the pleasure of meeting Igor a few times, and it was always in an atmosphere of good friendship.
Peter Pepper,
Berlin, Germany
Enn Tyugu
Please pass my deepest condolence to Igor's friends, relatives and colleagues. This is a very sad news, however, I am thankful to you that you took care of informing me. We all in Tallinn and Tartu loved Igor very much, and shall remember him as the most friendly, gifted and modest person.
Enn Tyugu,
Tallinn, Estonia
Bertrand Meyer
I am terribly sorry to hear this. I have known Igor Pottosin on and
off for almost twenty-five years now, and I was really happy to have renewed my connection with him. He was the kind of person about
whom no one ever hears a bad or unpleasant comment. Please pass on my condolences to his family and colleagues.
Bertrand Meyer
Professor of Software Engineering, ETH Zurich
Alex Bolychevsky
Let me express my deepest condolences on the untimely demise of Igor Vasilyevich. Though I missed the opportunity to get to know him better personally, I shall remember him as an outstanding man and brilliant scientist, whose work made a profound impact on my scientific views and indeed on my entire life-time career.
Alex Bolychevsky
Mark Trakhtenbrot
Yesterday (i.e. on December 31), just 3 hours before the year 2001 has finished, I got several e-mails forwarded to me by my former colleagues in the company where I worked during the last 15 years, till the end of October. These mails arrived to my mailbox there, which was not closed by mistake. One of these messages was from V.Sabelfeld, dated December 18. This way I knew only now that Igor Vasilievich Pottosin has passed away. My father also didn't know about this; nobody has sent him any information about what has happened.
I'm fully shocked and can't believe this is true. Since my first days in the Computing Center (where I arrived 30 years ago after graduating from the University), I remember Igor Vasilievich both as a high-level professional in Computer Science and Software Engineering - and as a very impressive person.
He has taught us a lot of things that were new in those days in our profession. And it was a great honor to learn from one of the founders - of this profession in Russia, and of the Programming Department in Novosibirsk. I'm sure that many young and not very young people feel like this.
But far beyond this, he has demonstrated again and again that there are good old human qualities that stand really above all. He was very friendly and open, with a basic positive attitude to people around him. And he was a very intelligent, honest and conscious person. Altogether, this triggered the feeling of a deep respect to Igor Vasilievich.
During the last several years we used to exchange e-mails, several times a year. I liked to get his messages, and this way to keep in touch and to know what happens in the place where I worked for more than 12 years.
It is so strange to think that all this is now in the past. When this summer I viewed on the Institute's Web site pictures taken at the Ershov Conference, I was really glad to see that Igor Vasilievich looks good, and that those 17+ years that passed since I left Russia didn't change him and his natural charm. And today I looked at the same pictures again - this time to commemorate Igor Vasilievich ...
I'm sending my condolences to the family of Igor Vasilievich, and of course to all former and current staff members of the legendary Department of Programming.
Mark Trakhtenbrot,
Rehovot, Israel
Boris Trakhtenbrot
Skorbnaya vest' o konchine Igorya Vasil'evicha doshla do menya tol'ko seychas. Vyrazhayu soboleznovaniya sem'ye a takzhe vsemu kollektivu Instituta im. A.P. Ershova. Bolee soroka let tomu nazad zarodilas' v Novosibirskom Akademgorodke vydayushchayas'a shkola programmirovaniya, odnim iz pionerov kotoroy byl, togda sovsem eshcho molodoy Igor' Vasil'evich Pottosin. Do poslednego svoego dnya on otdaval svoi sily i talant dal'neyshemu razvitiyu etoy shkoly, a takzhe vospitaniyu neskol'kikh pokoleniy uchenikov i posledovateley.
Ya, kak mnogie drugie kollegi Igorya Vasil'evicha po Vychislitel'nomu Tsentru, po Institutu Matematiki i po Novosibirskomu Universitetu, nakhozus' teper' ochen' daleko ot rodnogo Akademgorodka. Navsegda my zapomnim I.V. kak bol'shogo uchonogo i organizatora nauki, pedagoga, obatatel'neyshego cheloveka i interesnogo sobesednika.
Boris Trakhtenbrot