The following text is the speech as I wrote it originally. It is not identical to the way I delivered it, because I had to make some real time cuts to fit into the allotted time of 10 minutes. I have updated the chronolgy slide as well.

Acceptance of A. Nico Habermann Award
CRA Snowbird Conference



Bryant W. York
July 27, 1998


I thank the CRA for this wonderful award. It is truly a great honor for me to be included in the company of past recipients such as Andy Bernat, Eugene Lawler, Richard Tapia and Caroline Wardle. I would like to take a few moments to reflect on what I think this award is about and to thank a number of people who have helped me over the years. I have timed this speech and it should take about 12 minutes.

This award, named for Nico Habermann, is for service to underrepresented groups in the computing disciplines and I commend the CRA for establishing this award in honor of Nico's memory. I was fortunate enough to know Nico personally as he appointed me to the CISE Advisory Committee in 1992 and I hope to do honor to his memory. Although you have heard a brief account of some of my service activities over the past few years, I would like for you to leave here with a different view of "service". In fact, I believe service is not the proper word as it carries negative connotations in most settings. Webster gives 11 definitions for the noun, "service", and indicates it is derived from the Latin, "servitium" meaning "the condition of a slave". Of the many definitions, probably the one most commonly held in academic circles is "useful labor that does not produce a tangible commodity." I would like to propose that the term community development be substituted for service, where community development entails the notion of "giving willingly for the good of the community". "Does community development produce a tangible commodity?" I believe it does and that tangible commodity is human capital.

As an African-American I would like to comment on the underrepresentation of African Americans in computing. Permit me a brief aside to put my following comments in perspective. For the moment let me presume that the underrepresentation of African Americans in computing is somehow reflective of larger processes in the broader culture. Perspective on the broader culture may offer insights into the solution of the problem within computer science. I have found the following metaphor useful in modulating my anxiety about this issue and I call it the "failed marriage" metaphor for the "race situation" in the United States. Think of slavery as a 200-year dysfunctional marriage and the Civil War as a bitterly contested divorce in which both parties (Blacks and Whites) had to continue to live in the same house after the divorce. A popular rule of thumb is that the time to recover from a close relationship is equal to about one-half the duration of the relationship, assuming the parties actually separate. By this arithmetic the country should have reached the end of the recovery period in 1965; however, being forced to continue living in the same house while building a new relationship has prolonged the process. Both patience and a sense of urgency are required. (End of aside!)

So with patience and a sense of urgency, I will try to illustrate what I mean by "the tangible nature of community development" and its role in increasing African American participation in computing through a brief personal portrait spanning parts of 6 decades. It will be in the form of a thank you note to a small fraction of the people who have given me assistance along the way; many of whom are sitting in this very audience. Think of my life in the context of the last 50 years of the Nation's recovery. In order for me to be standing here today, my human capital had to be developed and I had to be constructed as a member of a sequence of communities before I could join this one. In some cases, but let me emphasize not all, I had to give up membership in one community in order to join the next.

Chronolgy Slide

My thank you note begins in the 1940s. I would like to thank my parents and my 5 siblings for constructing my initial community. As some of you know, I grew up in a housing project in Roxbury, MA during the 1950s. I would like to thank the families of the Orchard Park Housing Project for constructing my next community. Although many families fed me and my siblings when the Yorks did not have food; I will single out three families for special thanks, the Janey, the Saunders, and the Lewis families. Most of us had a great elementary school teacher; Mr. D'Angelo was mine in the 4th grade. I thank him for truly implementing the spirit of Brown v. Board of Education in his classroom. For me, his was the first classroom in which blacks and whites were not required to sit on opposite sides of the room (the Boston version of Jim Crow). He challenged me to become a member of the school community which landed me on the team for the city-wide scholastic competition, broadcast as a radio show, the 1954 WBZ Quizdown, which was heard in my first two communities. I want to thank Charlie Russell, my first basketball coach, for bringing his brother, Bill Russell, then a Boston Celtics rookie, to our housing project (the Roxbury Neighborhood House). I thank Bill Russell for implanting in me the idea that an assist was as good as a basket and that this idea transcended basketball. I thank Conrad Jamieson, my 7th grade Latin teacher for welcoming me into the Boston Latin School community. He made Latin class truly enjoyable. More importantly, he forced my homeroom teacher to address me with the same respect afforded the other students. I was no longer the N-word, but 12-year-old Mr. York. I had an identity and I was attending the oldest school (founded 1635) in the United States, a school whose existence predated the United States. I thank the MIT Summer Math program for accepting me into their community as well as teaching me some useful mathematics.

During the 1960s I received a number of useful assists from within and without my growing constellation of communities. I wish to thank Wilma Rudolf for the hug and the opportunity to race the world's fastest woman and lose. I thank Martin Luther King, Jr. for the opportunity to shake his hand, to listen to him preach and to march with him. I thank Aaron Gordon and Sid Rosenthal, teachers from Boston Latin School, for helping me through a deep depression after my brother's death and for convincing me to go to college. I thank Brandeis University for allowing me to add it to my collection of communities. There I met people such as Angela Davis and Tyne Daly as well as some pretty fair mathematicians (Profs. Auslander, Hironaka, Buchsbaum, Vasquez, Palais, and the logician van Heijenoort). I thank Dr. Burton White from the Harvard School of Education who gave me a meaningful summer job in which I helped to build one of the first Project Headstart programs in the country in my own hometown of Roxbury. When I got married at age 20 and my wife became pregnant, he loaned me the down payment and held the mortgage (at a very low interest rate) on a three-family house that allowed me to live rent free and finish college. I thank Dr. Leon Sullivan for starting Opportunities Industrialization Centers, a jobs program, and allowing me to give back to one of my communities by tutoring adults in math and reading. I thank Jimmy Walker for showing me that a kid from Roxbury could grow up to become the best college basketball player in the country and the first player drafted by the NBA in 1967. I thank Muhammad Ali for visiting Roxbury, providing me with the opportunity to watch him perform and to shake his hand. Over the next three years I watched him take a stand based on his beliefs that affected me profoundly. I thank Denis Blackett for convincing me to apply to the MIT Sloan School.

My thank you note continues in the 1970s with the MIT Sloan School and another new community. There I was exposed to faculty such as Jay Forrester, Peter Gil and Lester Thurow. I especially want to thank my thesis advisor, Malcolm Jones, and my mentor, Tony Gorry. I want to thank Michael Arbib for writing "Brains, Machines and Mathematics" and the conversation that convinced me computer science was possible for me. I thank the UMASS-Amherst Computer Science Department and especially Ed Riseman for welcoming me into the UMASS community. I also thank Al Hanson, Robbie Moll, Bill Kilmer, Dan Fishman, Caxton Foster, Art Karshmer, Andy Singer and Onig Minasian for their invaluable assists during that time. Andy Singer convinced me to teach a course in a nearby prison, a community that I visited but did not join! Onig Minasian convinced me to teach some courses at General Dynamics, another community that I visited but did not join! Art Karshmer convinced me you can beat the odds, but sometimes you need a twin. I thank David Marr, Ruzena Bajcsy, Nils Nilsson and Marty Tenebaum for encouraging comments on my research during that time. I thank Eric Carlson, my first manager at IBM, for finding funds to fly me home several times during my mother's final stages of lung cancer.

By the 1980s through the generous assistance of others in their pursuit of community development, I had become a valuable piece of human capital with the ability to contribute to a number of different communities. My thank you note continues in the 1980s with special thanks to Nils Nilsson and Marty Tenebaum (then at SRI) for research and career counseling. I thank IBM for the opening up a new community to me which included people such as John Backus, Ted Codd, Frank King, Abe Peled, Jim King, Jim Gray, Jim Rhyne, Pat Mantey, Won Kim, Mitch Zolliker, Brad Wade, Don Chamberlin, Ron Fagin, Barbara Simons, Dan Weller and many others. I want to especially thank my managers Bob Taylor and Peter Lucas for their strong support during and after my years at IBM. I thank Magic Johnson for the handshake, for the autograph and for elevating the status of the "assist" in the NBA and in the world. I thank Sam Fuller, Mahendra Patel and Norma Abel for their support during my years at DEC.

From the 1990s I want to thank Bill Wulf and Larry Oliver for suggesting that I do a rotatorship at NSF. Actually Bill has been supporting me for nearly 20 years and he is still looking out for me today. Thanks Bill, I am truly grateful. Going to NSF in 1990-91 afforded me the opportunity to begin to give back on a much larger scale than I had ever dreamed. Of course, it meant joining the NSF community. There I had the opportunity to make grants to Historically Black colleges, to Hispanic-serving institutions, to a Native American institution, to majority institutions, to a blind physicist doing computing, to a wheelchair bound graduate student, and to Presidential Young Investigators among others. I wish to thank Chuck Brownstein the acting AD at the time and the front office crew of Mel Ciment, Jerry Daen, Yvonne Summers and Odessa Dyson. I also thank my immediate co-workers at that time, Harry Hedges then head of CDA, John Cherniavsky currently Director of EIA, Caroline Wardle (previous recipient of the Habermann award) and Barbara Palmer. Thanks for nominating me John! I give special thanks and congratulations to my long time friend from NSF and tonight's recipient of the Distinguished Service award, Merrell Patrick. I cannot think of anyone more deserving. I thank the many other NSF staff listed on the slide. I have worked closely with all of these people and I loved my time in that community. Upon leaving NSF I joined the Northeastern University faculty (another community) where I received the strong support of former Dean Cindy Brown, Dean Larry Finkelstein, former Provost Michael Baer and former President Jack Curry. I was brought into the ACM community through the efforts of Joe Turner. Many thanks to Joe, John Werth and the rest of the ACM education Board, as well as to other ACM officers, Barbara Simons, Mary Jane Irwin, Stu Zweben, Chuck House and Joe DeBlasi for my time on Council, the Committee on Minorities, and the USACM Public Policy Committee. I thank Ephraim Glinert for teaching me that "we are all disabled, it is just a matter of degree." I was appointed to the CISE Advisory Committee in 1992 by Nico and I continued under Paul Young and Juris Hartmanis. Thanks to all of the members of the CISE Advisory Committee during that time - with special thanks to Barbara Liskov, Ed Hayes (I miss you Ed), Bob Sugar, Mary Vernon, Ruzena Bajcsy, Rick Adrion, Ed Lazowska, and Bob Sproull. Thanks to Dona Crawford and the SC97 Executive Committee for bringing me into the SC community, a community for which there is apparently no exit visa (humor!). I thank Jan Cuny, Richard Tapia, Elliot Soloway, Andy Bernat, Valerie Taylor, Mary Vernon, Art Karshmer, Don Coleman, Ramon Vasquez-Espinosa and the ADMI crew who have helped me with a number of special projects in the last several years. Very special thanks to Roscoe Giles, a long time good friend, colleague and cohort in community building. He has been an invaluable source of energy, ideas, and support. And, of course, my family has been tremendously supportive and patient over the years. Thanks to my parents, Bill and Mabel now both deceased; to my sisters Yvonne and Gail; and to my brothers Bill, Steven (deceased) and Greg. Heartfelt thanks to my children, my son Chandler, my daughters Monica and Portia, and to my grandson Jordan.

Now, what was the point of this long thankyou note? It required a tremendous amount of assistance over several years to produce just one African American computer scientist. It worked because, at each stage, I was inspired by great people who took the time to speak with me and I was welcomed into a community where I had a chance to participate and contribute. I ask you "Consider whether your own departments are communities or sieves." "Is the function of your program to develop human capital or to filter?"

Let me finish up.

I have shaken hands with and/or hugged every person mentioned above. Some were Black; some were White; some were Hispanic, Asian or Native American; some were men and some were women. Physically touching you great people was a way of making community tangible for me; it was also important in making me think the impossible was possible. You were NOT just distant role models. You are/were real flesh and blood people. That collection of handshakes and hugs have been captured right here in the palm of my hand by a technology invented several millennia ago. That same technology has allowed me to pass along your accumulated gifts over the last 45 years and hopefully I can continue to do so into the next millennium. Remember: "recovery takes good will and time".

Let me conclude by saying: Very few individuals of any race or gender have a history of the kind of support I have just described. With such a spectacular collection of people in my corner over so long a period of time, I was bound to win something eventually. Thank you for this wonderful award and thank you for listening.



Chronology Slide

In the 1940s
My Parents William and Mabel (both now deceased) Sisters: Yvonne and Gail; Brothers: William, Steven (now deceased), Gregory


In the 1950s
1950 - 61 Orchard Park Families - Janey,Saunders, Lewis
1953 - John D. O'Bryant
1954 - Mr. D'Angelo - 4th grade teacher, WBZ Quizdown - RADIO
1956 - Charlie Russell - Basketball coach (Charlie's brother Bill)
1957 - 59 Conrad Jamieson, Boston Latin School, Latin Teacher - grades 7 - 9
1958 - 62 MIT Summer Math Program


In the 1960s
1960 - Wilma Rudolf, 1960 Olympic Champion
1960 - 62Sid Rosenthal, Aaron Gordon, Boston Latin School teachers
1962 - Martin Luther King, Jr.,
1963 - 67 Brandeis U. - Angela Davis, Tyne Daly, Professors Auslander, Hironaka, Buchsbaum, Vasquez, Palais, van Heijenoort
1965 - 67 Burton White, Harvard, Hilltop Center, Project Headstart, Denis Blackett, MIT
1966 - Leon Sullivan, Opportunities Industrialization Centers
1967 - Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Walker


In the 1970s
1971 - Malcolm Jones, Tony Gorry, Peter Gil, Lester Thurow, Jay Forrester - MIT/SLOAN
1974 - Michael Arbib, UMASS - Brains, Machines and Mathematics
1977 - David Marr, MIT, Ruzena Bajcsy, UPenn
1974 - 79 UMASS - Ed Riseman , Al Hanson, Robbie Moll, Bill Kilmer, Dan Fishman, Caxton Foster, Art Karshmer, Andy Singer, Onig Minasian, Tom Williams, John Lowrance, Daryl Lawton and the rest of the VISIONS team
1979 - Eric Carlson - IBM


In the 1980s
1980 - 86 SRI - Nils Nilsson, Marty Tenebaum
IBM - John Backus, Ted Codd, Frank King, Abe Peled, Jim King, Jim Gray, Jim Rhyne, Mitch Zolliker, Brad Wade, Don Chamberlin, Ron Fagin, Won Kim, Will Plough, Carl Hauser, Roger Haskin and Dan Weller IBM managers - Peter Lucas, Bob Taylor
1983-5 DEC - Sam Fuller, Mahendra Patel, Norma Abel, Ugo Buy, Greg Tutunjian
1985 - Magic Johnson
1986 - BU - Roscoe Giles, Rich Brower, Bill Klein, TMC - Dave Waltz


In the 1990s
1990 - Bill Wulf - CMU/NSF/UVA (1979 - present)
1990 - 91 NSF - Chuck Brownstein, Mel Ciment, Jerry Daen, Yvonne Summers and Odessa Dyson; Harry Hedges, John Cherniavsky, Caroline Wardle and Barbara Palmer; Merrell Patrick, Tom Weber, Bob Borchers, Rich Hirsh, Larry Brandt, Bob Voigt, John Van Rosendale, Irene Lombardo, Elaine Washington, Lillian Ellis, Kamal Abdali, Steve Wolff, Dave Staudt, Darlene Fisher, Dan Van Bellegham, YT Chien, Maria Zemankova, Howard Moraff, Bernie Chern, Mike Foster, John Lehmann, John Cozzens, Aubry Bush, Stephen Griffin, Nora Sabelli, Forbes Lewis, Rachelle Hollander, Bill McHenry, T. C. Ting, Rita Rodriguez, Terry Porter, Luther Williams and Walter Massey
1990-91 Jesse Bemley, Bill Pitts, Francis Sullivan
1991 - 3Ephraim Glinert - RPI
1991 - pres Northeastern University - Dean Larry Finkelstein, Dean Cindy Brown, Provost Mike Baer, President Jack Curry, CCS Faculty and Staff, Ellen Jackson, Daryl Hellman
1991 - pres ACM - Joe Turner, John Werth, Doris Lidtke, Bob Aiken, Norm Gibbs, Barbara Simons, Mary Jane Irwin, Stu Zweben, Chuck House and Joe DeBlasi
1992 - 97 Nico Habermann, Paul Young, Juris Hartmanis and the members of the CISE Advisory Committee (Barbara Liskov, Ed Hayes, Bob Sugar, Mary Vernon, Ruzena Bajcsy, Rick Adrion, Ed Lazowska, Bob Sproull, ...)
1993 - Carmelo Giacovazzo, Otto Ori
1995 - 97 Dona Crawford and SC97 Executive Committee
1998 - SC99 - Bob Borchers and Cherri Pancake
1992 - pres Jan Cuny, Richard Tapia, Andy Bernat, Elliot Soloway, Valerie Taylor, Don Coleman, Ramon Vasquez-Espinosa and the folks at ADMI
1986 - pres Roscoe Giles