William T. Stearn

William Thomas Stearn (16 April 1911 – 9 May 2001) was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated, and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at a Cambridge bookshop, but he also had a position as an assistant in the university botany department. At the age of 29 he married Eldwyth Ruth Alford, who later became his collaborator. He died in London in 2001.
While at the bookshop, he was offered a position as a librarian at the Royal Horticultural Society in London (1933–1952). From there he moved to the Natural History Museum as a scientific officer in the botany department (1952–1976). After his retirement, he continued working there, writing, and serving on a number of professional bodies related to his work, including the Linnean Society, of which he became president. He also taught botany at Cambridge University as a visiting professor (1977–1983).
Stearn is known for his work in botanical taxonomy and botanical history, particularly classical botanical literature, botanical illustration and for his studies of the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus. His best known books are his "Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners", a popular guide to the scientific names of plants, and his "Botanical Latin" for scientists.
Stearn received many honours for his work, at home and abroad, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1997. Considered one of the most eminent British botanists of his time, he is remembered by an essay prize in his name from the Society for the History of Natural History, and a named cultivar of "Epimedium", one of many genera he produced monographs on. He is the botanical authority for over 400 plants that he named and described.
Life.
Childhood.
William Thomas Stearn was born at 37 Springfield Road, Chesterton, Cambridge, England, on 16 April 1911, the eldest of four sons, to Thomas Stearn (1871 or 1872–1922) and Ellen ("Nellie") Kiddy (1886–1986) of West Suffolk. His father worked as a coachman to a Cambridge doctor. Chesterton was then a village on the north bank of the River Cam, about two miles north of Cambridge's city centre, where Springfield Road ran parallel to Milton Road to the west. William Stearn's early education was at the nearby Milton Road Junior Council School ("see image"). Despite not having any family background in science (though he recalled that his grandfather was the university rat-catcher) he developed a keen interest in natural history and books at an early age. He spent his school holidays on his uncle's Suffolk farm, tending cows grazing by the roadside where he would observe the wild flowers of the hedgerows and fields. Stearn's father died suddenly in 1922 when Stearn was only eleven, leaving his working-class family in financial difficulties as his widow (Stearn's mother) had no pension.
That year, William Stearn succeeded in obtaining a scholarship to the local Cambridge High School for Boys on Hills Road, close to the Cambridge Botanic Garden, which he attended for eight years till he was 18. The school had an excellent reputation for biology education, and while he was there, he was encouraged by Mr Eastwood, a biology teacher who recognised his talents. The school also provided him with a thorough education in both Latin and Greek. He became secretary of the school's Natural History Society, won an essay prize from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and spent much of his time at the Botanic Garden. Stearn also gained horticultural experience by working as a gardener's boy during his school holidays, to supplement the family income.
Stearn attended evening lectures on paleobotany given by Albert Seward (chair of botany at Cambridge University 1906–1936), and Harry Godwin. Seward was impressed by the young Stearn, giving him access to the herbarium of the Botany School (now Department of Plant Sciences—"see 1904 photograph") and allowing him to work there as a part-time research assistant. Later, Seward also gave Stearn access to the Cambridge University Library to pursue his research.
Later life.
Stearn was largely self-educated and his widowed mother worked hard to support him while at school but could not afford a university education for him, there being no grants available then. When not at the Botany School, he attended evening classes to develop linguistic and bibliographic skills. His classes there included German and the classics. He obtained his first employment at the age of 18 in 1929, a time of high unemployment, to support himself and his family. He worked as an apprentice antiquarian bookseller and cataloguer in the second-hand section at Bowes & Bowes bookshop, 1 Trinity Street (now Cambridge University Press), between 1929 and 1933 where he was able to pursue his passion for bibliography. During his employment there, he spent much of his lunchtimes, evenings and weekends, at the Botany School and Botanic Garden. This was at a time when botany was thriving at Cambridge under the leadership of Seward and Humphrey Gilbert-Carter.
On 3 August 1940, he married Eldwyth Ruth Alford (1910–2013), by whom he had a son and two daughters, and who collaborated with him in much of his work. Ruth Alford was a secondary school teacher from Tavistock, Devon, the daughter of Roger Rice Alford a Methodist preacher and mayor of Tavistock. When their engagement was announced in "The Times", Stearn was vastly amused to see that he was described as a "Fellow of the Linen Society", a typographical error for Linnean Society. Stearn was brought up an Anglican, but was a conscientious objector and after the Second World War he became a Quaker. In his later years, following official retirement in 1976 he continued to live in Kew, Richmond. His entry in "Who's Who" lists his interests as "gardening and talking". He died on 9 May 2001 of pneumonia at Kingston Hospital, Kingston upon Thames, at the age of 90. His funeral took place on 18 May at Mortlake crematorium. He left three children (Roger Thomas Stearn, Margaret Ruth Stearn and Helen Elizabeth Stearn) and an estate of £461,240. His wife, whose 100th birthday was celebrated at the Linnean Society in 2010, lived to the age of 103.
Professor Stearn had a reputation for his encyclopedic knowledge, geniality, wit and generosity with his time and knowledge, being always willing to contribute to the work of others. He had a mischievous sense of fun and was famous for his anecdotes while lecturing, while his colleagues recalled that "he had a happy genius for friendship". He was described as having a striking figure, "a small man, his pink face topped with a thatch of white hair", and earned the nickname of "Wumpty" after his signature of "Wm. T. Stearn".
Career.
Cambridge years (1929–1933).
While working at the bookshop he made many friends among the Cambridge botanists and participated in their activities, including botanical excursions. In addition to Professor Seward, those influencing him included the morphologist Agnes Arber, Humphrey Gilbert-Carter the first scientific director of the Botanic Garden, John Gilmour then curator of the university herbarium and later director of the Garden (1951–1973), the horticulturalist E. A. Bowles (1865–1954), who became his patron, Harry Godwin, then a research fellow and later professor and Tom Tutin who was working with Seward at that time. Seward gave him full research facilities in the herbarium. He continued his research, visiting the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, in 1930, at the age of 19, and also spent two weeks at the herbarium of the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, with the aid of a £15 grant from the Royal Society to study "Epimedium". Also in 1930, the Fifth International Botanical Congress was held at Cambridge, and Stearn was able to attend. During this time he commuted between the bookshop, the Botany School, Botanic Garden and home by bicycle, his preferred means of transportation throughout his life.
Lindley Library, Royal Horticultural Society (1933–1952).
In 1933, H. R. Hutchinson, who was the Librarian at the Lindley Library, Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) in London, was due to retire. John Gilmour, now assistant director at the Kew Gardens, put forward Stearn's name, together with Bowles, a vice-president of the Society, who had discovered Stearn at the bookshop. Stearn was 22 when he began work at the library, initially as assistant librarian, before taking over Hutchinson's position after six months. He later explained his appointment at such a young age as being the result of World War I: "All the people who should have had those jobs were dead." There he collaborated with Bowles on a number of plant monographs, such as Bowles' "Handbook of Crocus" and their work on "Anemone japonica" ("Anemone hupehensis" var. "japonica"). Written in 1947, it is still considered one of the most comprehensive accounts of the origins and nomenclature of fall-blooming anemones. Stearn was one of the last people to see Bowles alive, and when Bowles died, Stearn wrote an appreciation of him, and later contributed the entry on Bowles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Much of his spare time was spent studying at the Kew Gardens.
The Lindley Library, the largest horticultural library in the world and named after the British botanist John Lindley (1799–1865), was established in 1868 by the acquisition of Lindley's 1,300 volumes upon his death. It had recently undergone considerable change. In 1930, the library had been rehoused in a new floor added to the society's Vincent Square headquarters, but the role of the library was somewhat downgraded. Frederick Chittenden had been appointed as Keeper of the Library (1930–1939), and Hutchinson reported directly to him. Stearn related that when he reported for duty, Hutchinson was completely unaware of the appointment of his new assistant.
Lindley was one of Stearn's inspirations, also being a librarian who had a long association with the RHS. Lindley also bequeathed his herbarium to the Cambridge University Herbarium, where it now forms the Lindley Collection. As Stearn remarked "I came to know his numerous publications and to admire the industry, tenacity and ability with which he undertook successfully so many different things". Later Stearn would publish a major work on Lindley's life and work. Lindley's contributions to horticultural taxonomy were matched only by those of Stearn himself. Stearn soon set about using his antiquarian knowledge to reorganise the library, forming a pre-Linnean section. Not long after his arrival the library acquired one of its largest collections, the Reginald Cory Bequest (1934), which Stearn set about cataloguing on its arrival two years later, resulting in at least fifteen publications.
While at the library he continued his self-education through evening classes, learning Swedish, and travelling widely. Stearn used his three-week annual leaves in the pre-war years to visit other European botanical libraries, botanic gardens, museums, herbaria and collections, as well as collecting plants, with special emphasis on "Epimedium" and "Allium". His travels took him to Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Sweden.
War years (1941–1946).
The only break from this employment was the war years 1941–1946, leaving his assistant Ms. Cardew as acting librarian. Initially Stearn served as an air raid warden, before enlisting. As a conscientious objector, he could not serve in a combatant role, but was accepted into the Royal Air Force (RAF) Medical Services, as he had previously worked with the St John Ambulance Brigade. He served in the RAF in both England, and Asia (India and Burma, where he worked in intelligence, and was awarded the Burma Star). While there he undertook studies of Indo-Malayan and Sikkim-Himalayan tropical vegetation, carried out botanical explorations, taught biology to troops and began work on his "Botanical Latin". His wartime observations led to collaborative publications such as "An enumeration of the flowering plants of Nepal" (1978–1982), "Beautiful Indian Trees" (2nd ed. 1954), as well as works on Himalayan species of "Allium". On returning from the war, Stearn and his new wife, Eldwyth Ruth Stearn, were obliged to live in the Lindley Library for a while till they found a more permanent home, due to the acute housing shortage in London.
Natural History Museum (1952–1976).
From the Lindley Library, Stearn ("see 1950 Photograph") moved to the Botany Department at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington in 1952, and by the time he retired in 1976, he was the Senior Principal Scientific Officer there. He had now achieved his aim of becoming a research scientist, despite lack of formal qualifications, enabling him to spend more of his time collecting and studying plants. During this time the museum was undergoing steady expansion, with new staff and programmes. At the museum he was put in charge of Section 3 of the General Herbarium (the last third of the Dicotyledons in the Bentham & Hooker system, i.e., Monochlamydae) and floristic treatment of the regions of Europe, Jamaica, the United States, Australia and Nepal, including work on the museum's "Flora of Jamaica" and the Nepal flora he started work on during the war. Seven volumes of the "Flora of Jamaica" had appeared prior to the Second World War. Although the project was revived after the war, and Stearn carried out six months of field work in Jamaica, it never came to fruition; no further volumes appeared. In Jamaica, Stearn followed in the footsteps of Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), whose collection had been left to the Natural History Museum. Stearn's generic work at the museum concentrated on "Allium", "Lilium" and "Paeonia". He continued to travel widely, with field work in Europe (particularly Greece), Australia, and the United States, and published 200 papers during his twenty-four years at the museum, and although the library was not his responsibility, he spent much time there adding written notes to many of the critical texts.
While at the museum, Stearn became increasingly involved in the work of the Linnean Society during his Kensington years. He was also offered the George A. Miller professorship of botany at the University of Illinois (1966), but felt he would be unable to leave his commitments in London. At the time of his retirement in 1976, he was still using a fountain pen as his only means of communication and scholarship, a fact commemorated by his retirement present of a Mont Blanc pen capable of writing for long periods without refills.
Retirement (1976–2001).
Following his retirement on 30 November 1976 he continued to work, both at the museum and at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, where his home at 17 High Park Road, Kew Gardens, Richmond ("see image"), gave him access to the herbarium and library, a short bicycle trip away. Indeed, 35 percent of his total publications appeared in the quarter century of his retirement. He was commissioned to write a history of the museum for its centenary (1981), although he did so with some difficulty, due to deadlines and budget constraints. The task, which took three years, was made more difficult for him by the museum's decision to censor his critical comments. He continued his association with the Lindley Library all his life, being an active committee member and regularly attended RHS flower shows even after he was barely able to walk.
Sojourn in Greece.
As a student of the classics he was passionate about Greece, its mountains and plants (such as "Paeonia") and all things Greek, both ancient and modern. The Stearns had formed a friendship with Constantine Goulimis and Niki and Angelos Goulandris, founders of the Goulandris Museum of Natural History in Kifissia, Athens. Stearn first met the Goulandris' in 1967, and offered practical help with their museum. He also stayed with them when he and his wife visited Greece. Niki Goulandris illustrated both "Wild Flowers of Greece" that Goulimis and Stearn wrote in 1968, as well as his "Peonies of Greece" (1984). The latter work typified Stearn's encyclopedic approach, including topics such as mythology and herbalism in addition to taxonomy. Stearn then took on the editorship of "Annales Musei Goulandris", the scientific journal of the museum (1976–1999), succeeding Werner Greuter, the first editor, having been instrumental in getting the journal launched in 1973. Eldwyth Ruth Stearn took on the job of compiling the indexes. When he retired from this position he was 88, and was succeeded by John Akeroyd. He was a liberal contributor to the journal, and during this time he and Eldwyth Ruth Stearn undertook their translation of "The Greek Plant World in Myth, Art, and Literature" (1993).
Societies and appointments.
Stearn was a member of the Linnean Society for many years, becoming a fellow as early as 1934. He served as botanical curator 1959–1985, council member 1959–1963 and as vice-president 1961–1962 and president 1979–1982, producing a revised and updated history of the society in 1988. He also served as president of the Garden History Society and the Ray Society (1975–1977). The Royal Horticultural Society had made him an honorary fellow in 1946 and in 1986 he became a vice-president. Stearn became a member of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) in 1954, joining the Maps Committee the following year to prepare their "Atlas of the British Flora" (1962). He remained on that committee till 1968, when it became the Records Committee. For 40 years he was the BSBI referee for "Allium". While at the Lindley Library, he became a founding member of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History (later, the Society for the History of Natural History) in 1936, was one of its most active publishing members based on his cataloguing work at the library, and published a history of the society for their 50th anniversary in 1986. Other societies on which he served include the British Society for the History of Science (vice-president), the British Society for the History of Medicine (Council), the Garden History Society (president 1977–1982) and was a corresponding member of the Botanical Society of America.
Stearn was appointed Sandars Reader in Bibliography, University of Cambridge in 1965 and from 1977 to 1983 he was visiting professor at Cambridge University's Department of Botany, and also Visiting Professor in Botany at Reading University 1977–1983, and then Honorary Research Fellow (1983–). He was also a fellow of the Institute of Biology (1967) and honorary fellow, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Work.
William Stearn was the author of nearly 500 publications, including his autobiography. These included monographs, partial floras, books on botanical illustration, scholarly editions of historical botanical texts, dictionaries, bibliographies and botanical histories.
Early years.
During Stearn's initial four years in Cambridge (1929–1933), he published twenty-four papers, predominantly in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" and "Gardening Illustrated" and the "Journal of Botany", his first in 1929. While working as a gardener's boy during school holidays he had observed a specimen of "Campanula pusilla" ("Campanula cochleariifolia") with a distorted corolla. He then described and published the first appearance of the causative agent, the mould "Peronospora corollaea", in Britain, using the facilities of the Botany library.
At the Botanic Garden he developed a special interest in "Vinca", "Epimedium", "Hosta" and "Symphytum", all of which he published monographs on. A series of botanical publications followed, starting with a new species of "Allium" ("A. farreri" Stearn, 1930). Stearn repeatedly returned to the genus "Allium", and was considered a world expert on it; many species bear his name. 1930 would also see his first bibliographic work, on the botanist Reginald Farrer, whom he named "Allium farreri" after, and also described "Rosa farreri" (1933) and other species named after Farrer. It was while he was compiling Farrer's works in 1930 that he came across the latter's work, "The English Rock-Garden" (1919) and its account of Barren-worts ("Epimedium"), and kindled a lifetime interest in the genus. From 1932, he produced a series of papers on this genus, studying it at Cambridge, Kew and Paris. It became one of the genera which he was best known, and many species of which now bear his name. "Epimedium" and the related woodland perennial "Vancouveria" (Berberidaceae) would be the subject of his first monograph (1938) and were genera to which he would return at the end of his life. At the time the taxonomy of this genus was very confused, and with the help of the Cambridge Herbarium he obtained specimens from all over Europe to produce a comprehensive monograph. The work was so thorough that it was mistakenly considered a doctoral thesis by other botanists. He also began a series of contributions to the catalogue of the Herbarium, together with Gilmour and Tutin.
Later work.
After moving to London, Stearn produced a steady output of publications during his years at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library (1933–1952). These covered a wide range of topics from bibliography to plant nomenclature, taxonomy and garden plants, with a particular emphasis on "Vinca", "Epimedium" and "Lilium". Within two years of joining the library in 1933, he had produced his first major monograph, "Lilies" (1935), in collaboration with Drysdale Woodcock and John Coutts. This text, in an expanded and revised edition, as Woodcock and Stearn's "Lilies of the World" (1950) became a standard work on the Liliaceae "sensu lato". While at the library he also continued his collaboration with his Cambridge colleagues, publishing catalogues of the Herbarium collections, including the "Catalogue of the Collections of the Herbarium of the University Botany School, Cambridge" (1935). The second task imposed on him at this time involved the RHS role in maintaining revision of the Code of Botanical Nomenclature ("see" Botanical taxonomy).
After his return to London in 1946, at the end of the Second World War, a number of major publications ensued, including "Lilies of the World" in 1950. The RHS also imposed two major tasks on their librarian. In 1950, Frederick Chittenden, a previous director of RHS Wisley and Keeper of the Library, died leaving unfinished the four volume RHS "Dictionary of Gardening" that the society had commissioned from him before the war. The war had interrupted the work as many of the expected contributors were unavailable. Stearn, together with Patrick Synge, the RHS Publications Editor, undertook to complete the work, particularly volume IV (R–Z), a task he completed within six months, with 50 new articles. The finished work was published in 1951 and not only did he undertake the role of editing this large work but his contributions covered 50 genera, 600 species and complex identification keys such as "Solidago" and "Viola". Since Stearn's entries in volume IV extended from "Soldanella" to "Zygotritonia", he would jest that he was but "a peculiar authority on plants from 'So-' onwards". He issued a revised version in 1956 with Synge in which he added a further 86 articles. His recollection of this task was that he acquired "that occupational hazard of compilers of encyclopaedias", encyclopedic knowledge.
Many of Stearn's collaborative works used his bibliographic skills. While his genus monographs largely concentrated on Mediterranean flora, notably "Epimedium", "Allium" and "Paeonia", he was also the author of species articles both popular and technical as well as a number of classical treatises. In addition he produced floristic treatments of a number of regions such as Jamaica and Nepal. He also contributed to many national Florae as diverse as Bhutan and Greece, as well as major regional florae including the "Flora Europaea" and "European Garden Flora".
While his output covered a wide range of topics, he is best known for his contributions to botanical history, taxonomy, botanical bibliography, and botanical illustration. "Botanical Latin" (four editions 1966–1992), is his best known work, having become a standard reference and described as both the bible of plant taxonomists and a philological masterwork. It was begun during the war years and the first edition was basically a guide to Latin for botanists with no or limited knowledge of the language, which he described as a "do-it-yourself Latin kit" for taxonomists. Later, the work evolved into an etymological dictionary, but then Stearn learned that such a work had already been published in the Netherlands before the war. He then continued to expand it with the assistance of his wife and son, systematically collecting botanical terms from botanical texts. It is said that only he could have written this work, which explains not just the derivation of plant names but also the philological principles involved in forming those names. The work is considered responsible for the continued survival of Latin as the lingua franca of botany. In addition to this seminal text, he frequently delighted in the illumination that the classics could add to understanding plants and plant lore, such as his "Five Brethren of the Rose" (1965).
His best known popular work is his "Dictionary of Plant Names", which found its way into the libraries of most horticulturalists. One of the focuses of his work at the Natural History Museum was the flora of the Caribbean, where he carried out field work. Stearn continued to return to the Cambridge Botanic Garden, cared for his own garden and worked with the RHS to become an authority on horticulture as well as botany. William Stearn collaborated with his wife, Eldwyth Ruth Stearn, on a number of his most important works, including "Botanical Latin" and "Dictionary of Plant Names" and translating German botanical history into English. Just before his death he completed a revision of his original "Epimedium" monograph.
Botanical history.
William Stearn wrote extensively on the history of botany and horticulture, from Ancient Greece to his own times. He collected together J. E. Raven's 1976 J. H. Gray Lectures, editing and annotating them as "Plants and Plant Lore in Ancient Greece" (1990). In 1993, he and Eldwyth Ruth Stearn translated and expanded Baumann's "Die griechische Pflanzenwelt in Mythos, Kunst und Literatur" (1986) as "The Greek Plant World in Myth, Art, and Literature".
Stearn compiled a major work on the life of John Lindley and produced an edited version of the classic book on herbals by Agnes Arber, one of the influences of his Cambridge years, and whose obituary he would later write for "The Times". He also wrote a number of histories of the organisations he worked with as well as a number of introductions and commentaries on classic botanical texts such as John Ray's "Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum" (1691), together with historical introductions to reference books, including Desmond's "Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists" (1994).
In his "Botanical Gardens and Botanical Literature in the Eighteenth Century" (1961), Stearn provides some insight into his interpretation of botanical history: The progress of botany, as of other sciences, comes from the interaction of so many factors that undue emphasis on any one can give a very distorted impression of the whole, but certainly among the most important of these for any given period are the prevailing ideas and intellectual attitudes, the assumptions and stimuli of the time, for often upon them depends the extent to which a particular study attracts an unbroken succession of men of industry and originality intent on building a system of knowledge and communicating it successfully to others of like mind.
Linnaeus.
Stearn's historical research is best known for his work on Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), which he began while at the Natural History Museum, and which won him a number of awards at home and abroad. Between 1953 and 1994 he produced more than 20 works describing Linnaeus' life and work.
Of Stearn's writings on Linnaeus, the most well known is his edition of the 1753 "Species plantarum", published in facsimile by the Ray Society in 1957, for which he wrote both a 176-page introduction and an appendix. Concerned that Linnaeus' methods were imperfectly understood by his contemporaries, Stearn wrote that his introduction "provided concisely all the information about his Linnaeus' life, herbaria, publications, methodology etc. which a botanical taxonomist needs to know". "The Times" stated that no other botanist possessed the historical knowledge and linguistic skills to write, what is considered one of the classic studies of the Swedish naturalist and a highpoint of 20th century botanical scholarship. Subsequently, Stearn became a recognised authority on Linnaeus. Stearn produced similar introductions to a number of other editions of Linnaeus' works, including "Genera Plantarum", "Mantissa plantarum" and "". Later, he would produce a bicentenary guide to Linnaeus (1978) for the Linnean Society.
Although Stearn spent much of his life studying and writing about Linnaeus, he did not admire the man's character, describing him as mean—"a jealous egoist, with a driving ambition". When asked which botanists in history he did admire, he cited John Lindley, Carolus Clusius (1526–1609) and Olof Swartz (1760–1818).
Botanical taxonomy.
Stearn made major contributions to plant taxonomy and its history. In 1950 the Seventh International Botanical Congress was held in Stockholm, and the RHS would have been represented by Chittenden, but he had been taken ill. Bowles then arranged for Stearn and Gilmour to represent the society in his stead. The congress appointed a special committee to consider nomenclatural issues related to cultivated plants, which became known as the Committee for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants (the "Stockholm Committee"), with Stearn as secretary (1950–1953). Stearn then proposed an International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (the "Cultivated Code"), producing the first draft that day. The code was accepted in principle by the committee, conditional on its approval by a parallel committee of the International Horticultural Congress (the Horticultural Nomenclature Committee), which would next meet in London in 1952 (the "London Committee"). Later that year Stearn was also appointed secretary of the London Committee so that he now represented both organisations. The two committees then met jointly on 22–24 November 1951 at the RHS building in London to draft a final joint proposal that was published by Stearn as secretary of an editorial committee and adopted by the 13th International Horticultural Congress the following year.
The resulting code was formulated as a supplement to the existing International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Stearn introduced two important concepts, the terms "cultivar" and "grex". Cultivar, a term first proposed by L. H. Bailey in 1923, refers to a distinctive genus or species variety raised or maintained in cultivation, such as "Euphorbia dulcis" "Chameleon". Grex (Latin for "flock" or "herd") refers to a group of hybrids of common parentage, such as "Lilium" Pink Perfection Group. These concepts contributed a similar clarity to the nomenclature of garden or agricultural plants that Linnaeus had brought to the naming of native plants two centuries earlier. Stearn continued to play an active part in the International Botanical Congresses over many years, where he was remembered for his rhetorical persuasion on nomenclatural matters. He was also a pioneer in the application of computer-aided technology to (numerical taxonomy), as in his work on "Columnea" (1969).
Botanical bibliography.
Motivated by his interest in botanical history and taxonomy, Stearn devoted a considerable part of his output to botanical bibliography, including numerous papers and catalogues establishing the exact publication dates of books on natural history, particularly from the early nineteenth century, including William Herbert's work on Amaryllidaceae (1821, 1837) and complete bibliographies of botanists such as John Gilmour (1989). At the RHS library he transformed the minimalist card indexing by introducing British Museum rules and adding extensive bibliographic information. He quickly realised that one of the major deficits in contemporary taxonomic nomenclature was a lack of precise dates of all the names, and set about rectifying this over a fifteen-year period, resulting in 86 publications, which was a major step in stabilising nomenclature. The importance of this lay in the rules of botanical nomenclature, which gives botanical names priority based on dates of publication. He considered his most important contribution in this regard to be his elucidation of the dating of the early 19th century collection of studies of Canary Islands flora by Webb and Berthelot (1836–1850). Another important work from this period was on Ventenat's "Jardin de la Malmaison" (1803–1804), also published in the new "Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History". In a number of instances his contributions to others' work went unacknowledged, particularly when he was younger, even though his introductions (often with the title "Revised and enlarged by W. T. Stearn") could be as lengthy as the texts they preceded. His contributions to botanical bibliography and in particular the correct interpretation of historical texts from Linnaeus to Arber are considered of central importance to the field of taxonomy.
Botanical illustration.
Within a few years after Stearn returned from the war, his "Art of Botanical Illustration" (1950) was published, remaining the standard work on the subject to this day. There was, however, some bibliographic confusionCollins, the publisher, had planned a book on botanical art for its New Naturalist series, but mistakenly commissioned both Stearn and the art historian Wilfred Blunt independently to produce the work. After the error was discovered the two decided to collaborate; Blunt wrote the work while Stearn edited and revised it. When it was published, Blunt's name was on the title page, while Stearn was only acknowledged in the preface. The omission was not rectified till he prepared the second edition in 1994, although the preface reveals Stearn's extensive contribution.
His continuing interest in botanical illustration led him to produce work on both historical and contemporary artists, including the "Florilegium" of Captain Cook and Joseph Banks from their first voyage to the Pacific on the "Endeavour", the similar account of Ferdinand Bauer's later botanical expedition to Australia with Matthew Flinders on the "Investigator" (1801–1803), and the work of illustrator Franz Bauer (the brother of Ferdinand). Stearn's studies of Ferdinand Bauer's "Flora Graeca" (1806–1840) enabled him to combine his passion for Greece with that of illustration. Other illustrators of this period that he wrote about included William Hooker.
Awards.
William Stearn received three honorary doctorates during his lifetime, from Leiden (D.Sc.1960), Cambridge (Sc.D.1967), and Uppsala (Fil.Dr.1972). He was the Masters Memorial Lecturer, Royal Horticultural Society in 1964. In 1976 the Linnean Society awarded him their Gold Medal for his contributions to Linnean scholarship and taxonomic botany. In 1985 he was the Wilkins Lecturer of the Royal Society, entitled "Wilkins, John Ray, and Carl Linnaeus." In 1986 he received the Founder's Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History and in 1993 he received the Engler Gold Medal from the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. The Royal Horticultural Society awarded him both their Veitch Memorial Medal (1964) and Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH, 1965). In 2000 he received the Asa Gray Award, the highest honour of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Stearn was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to horticulture and botany.
He was well regarded in Sweden for his studies on Linnaeus, and possessed a good grasp of the language. In addition to his honorary doctorate from Uppsala, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him their Linnaeus Medal in 1972, he was granted the title of Commander of the Swedish Order of the Star of the North (Polar Star) in 1980 and admitted to membership of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1983. Stearn was also elected to membership of the Swedish Linnaeus Society.
Legacy.
Stearn is considered a preeminent British botanist, and of equal stature with botanical scholars such as Robert Brown, Darwin, the Hookers (William and Joseph) and Frans Stafleu. He has been variously described as a Renaissance man, a polymath, "the modern Linnaeus", "the great Linnaean scholar of our day", "one of the world's greatest botanists" and a giant among botanists and horticulturalists. On his death, "The Times" noted his encyclopedic grasp of his field, stating that he was "acknowledged as the greatest botanical authority of the twentieth century". One description that Stearn rejected, however, was "the complete naturalist"an allusion to the title of his biography of Linnaeus. His contribution to his field was far greater than his extensive bibliography suggests, since he was known for his input into many of his colleagues' work, leading Professor P. B. Tomlinson to observe "he left no tome unstearned". The Society for the History of Natural History of which he was a founding member has created the William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize in his honour.
Eponymy.
Stearn is the botanical authority for over 400 taxa that bear his name, such as "Allium chrysonemum" Stearn. Many plants have been named (eponymy) after him, including the orchid nothogenus hybrid ×"Stearnara" J. M. H. Shaw. A number of species have been designated "stearnii" after William Stearn, including:
In light of his work on "Epimedium", a cultivar was named in his honour in 1988, "Epimedium" 'William Stearn'.


Richard Brodie (programmer)

Richard Reeves Brodie (born November 10, 1959) is an American computer programmer and author. He was the original creator of Microsoft Word. After leaving Microsoft, Brodie became a motivational speaker and authored two bestselling books.
Biography.
Early life.
Brodie was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the older son of Mary Ann Brodie and Richard Brodie, a child psychologist. He graduated from Newton South High School and entered Harvard College in the fall of 1977 concentrating in applied mathematics with an emphasis on computer science. Brodie left Harvard after his sophomore year and moved to Palo Alto, CA to work for Xerox Corporation's Advanced Systems Division (ASD), where he met Charles Simonyi and helped develop the Bravo X word processor for the Alto computer. Simonyi became a mentor to Brodie while at Xerox and took Brodie with him when he moved to Microsoft in 1981.
Microsoft.
Simonyi hired Brodie in 1981 as Microsoft's 77th employee, and a founding member of the Microsoft Application Division.
Brodie distinguished himself at Microsoft by creating the first version of Microsoft Word in less than seven months. In addition to primary authorship of Microsoft Word, Brodie wrote Microsoft's first C compiler, the original version of Notepad, and Word for the IBM PC Jr.
Brodie's success as a programmer brought him to the attention of Bill Gates, who made Brodie his technical assistant in 1983. Brodie's primary accomplishment as Gates's assistant was the management of the Cashmere project, which would be released as Word for Windows.
Brodie left Microsoft after the company went public in 1986, but returned in 1991 as Chief Software Designer and Lead Developer of the Omega project, which would be released as Microsoft Access in 1992. He left Microsoft again in 1994.
After leaving Microsoft.
Between his stints at Microsoft, Brodie embarked upon a personal self-improvement quest. He took numerous courses and participated in retreats, looking for an answer to the question of "why money and success didn’t make me happy." He wrote about his experience in his first book, "Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Don’t Need Help", first published in 1993. The book became a regional bestseller and was republished by Warner Books. Brodie followed "Getting Past OK" with "Virus of the Mind" in 1995. "Virus of the Mind" explored the new field of memetics, but from a practical point of view. Hay House bought the rights to both books and currently publishes them. Both books are in print in many languages worldwide.
Brodie's books and the subsequent book tours landed him interviews on both "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Phil Donahue".
Poker player.
Apart from his careers as a programmer and author, Brodie has found creative ways to integrate his love of sports and games into his professional life. In 2003 he joined the professional poker circuit. He has finished in the money in five World Series of Poker events and six World Poker Tours. Until Black Friday, he played as a Full Tilt Poker pro under the screen name Quiet Lion. He appeared on NBC's game show "Identity" and played himself in the movie "The Grand".
Brodie currently resides in Kirkland, Washington.


Robert Harrison (financier)

Robert S. Harrison is an American banker, lawyer, and educational & philanthropic administrator.
Currently he serves as the Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees.
He received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1976, and subsequently was a Rhodes Scholar at University of Oxford and received a juris doctor from Yale University. At Cornell, Harrison was a student-elected member of the university Board of Trustees, active in student government, a disc jockey at WVBR-FM, brother of Sigma Phi, and member of the Quill and Dagger society.
Previous he worked for Davis Polk & Wardwell and Goldman Sachs and did fundraising for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark and John Kerry.


Emigdio Vasquez

Emigdio Vasquez (1939–2014) was a Chicano-American artist, social realist muralist and educator, known as the "Godfather of Hispanic artists". Most of his murals depict Chicano and Latin American history and feature a photorealistic style.
Early life and education.
Emigdio Vasquez was born on May 25, 1939 in Jerome, Arizona. His father worked for Phelps-Dodge Copper mines; and in the early 1940s his family moved to Orange, California. His interest in art was evident as early as grade school where he would replicate comic book styles to create his own comics based on stories his father told about the Mexican Revolution.
Emigdio earned an Associate of Arts degree from Santa Ana College; and he transferred to California State University, Fullerton, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and a Master's Degree in Fine Arts. In 1979, for his Master's Degree thesis project, Emigdio painted an 85-foot long mural as a tribute to the Chicano working class - complete with figures modeled after his father as a miner and other relatives and friends as field workers and laborers.
Work.
Vasquez painted over 30 public murals in central Orange County, California and over 400 fine art paintings. The most recognized mural of Emigdio’s is the "Legacy of Cesar Chavez," which is located in the lobby of the Cesar Chavez Business and Computer Center in Santa Ana College. Some of Emigdio’s favorite subjects were the subculture of Chicanos and Mexican-Americans including zoot suits and Pachucos, as well as street people and day laborers that reflected a time in history presented in his narrative style. He also enjoyed still life and landscape painting, as well as portraits of historical figures. His diversity of subject matter and style place him in a select class of artists that transcends the traditional "pigeon hole" description that most artists are assigned.
Emigdio drew upon and transformed photographs and his plain air paintings into a body of work that documented and commented on the daily life of working people in the Barrio. With painstaking skills, he recorded the urban experience without sentimentality and with dignity, neither glorifying nor criticizing. His work is often recognized as a ‘super-realistic’ style, with historical transitions and themes.
In 1996, he received an artist fellowship from the Adolph and Ester Gottlieb Foundation in New York.
Teaching.
Vasquez taught in the art department at Santa Ana College, and managed major public arts programs for the Bowers Museum, California Arts Council, and the City of Santa Ana - including creating a 65-foot mural at the Orange County Transportation Center in Santa Ana.
Personal life.
He was previously married to Rosie Lopez Schelerth. Vasquez is the father of six children. His son, Emigdio "Higgy" Vasquez has apprenticed and assisted his father on many mural projects, including restoring and re-creating murals in their original style. Vasquez's daughter, Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill is a fine art painter and muralist.
Death and legacy.
Vasquez died from pneumonia on August 9, 2014 in Newport Beach, California. He was 75 years old.
Several groups recognized Emigdio for his contributions to art and culture. Including, in 2004, Emigdio was inducted into Santa Ana College Alumni Hall of Fame; in 2007, Cal State Fullerton University recognized Emigdio as one of the 50 most influential Hispanic graduates from its 50 years of existence; and, on May 25, 2013, his birthday, the city of Santa Ana Proclaimed that day as Emigdio Vasquez Day.
His ex-wife, Rosie Lopez Schelerth, had written about Vasquez's early life and their marriage in her self published autobiography, "Hi! My Name is Chicken" (2008).
"The Cypress St. Mural Restoration: "El Proletariado de Atzlan"" documentary about Emigdio Vasquez and son Higgy Vasquez, was produced and directed by Katherine Bowers for Chapman University. The documentary is about restoring the Cypress St. Mural by son Higgy and includes the story of the life and times of Emigdio Vasquez, his journey from his birthplace in Jerome, Arizona to Orange, California and where Vasquez's early interest in drawing led to a lifetime of fine art painting.


Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight:


Danny Thorpe

Danny Thorpe is an American programmer noted mainly for his work on Delphi.
He was the Chief Scientist for Windows and .NET developer tools at Borland Corporation starting from January 2004 until October 2005, as well as Chief Architect of the Delphi programming language from 2000 to 2005. He joined Borland in 1990 as an associate QA engineer working on Turbo Pascal 6.0. He was a member of the team that created the Delphi programming language, Visual Component Library (VCL), and IDE, released in 1995. In 1999, he was a founding member of the Kylix team, implementing the Delphi compiler and development environment on Linux, released in 2001. After the release of Kylix, he was the founder and lead programmer for Borland's Delphi .NET effort, porting and extending the Delphi language to the Microsoft .NET platform.
In 1994 while at Borland, he contracted with Santa Cruz startup Cinematronics (David Stafford and Mike Sandige) to build a component model and collision physics engine for a software pinball game. Cinematronics licensed an early version of the pinball engine to Microsoft for the Windows 95 Plus! Pack's "Space Cadet" pinball game. Cinematronics was later acquired by Maxis, who published Full Tilt! Pinball in 1996 and a sequel in 1998.
He joined Google in October 2005 and was a founding member of the Google Gears team, responsible for designing the client side browser local storage subsystem and JavaScript interface bindings.
He joined Microsoft's Windows Live Platform team in April 2006 as a Principal Software Development Engineer. His primary focus at Microsoft was the development of a secure client-side cross-domain scripting library for browser web apps, as well as the Windows Live Contacts Control built upon that library.
In October 2007, he joined startup Cooliris to work on the PicLens browser plugin for 3D visualization of web content.
In June 2008, he returned to Microsoft to work in a newly formed Cloud Computing Tools incubation team creating Visual Studio extensions to support development of applications for Microsoft's Windows Azure hosted services environment and Live Mesh / Live Framework client-side and offline web application environment.
In October 2010 he joined BiTKOO as Chief Software Architect to develop XACML based cloud scale distributed authorization and access control technologies. When BiTKOO was acquired by Quest Software in December 2011, he assumed the role of Product Architect in the Identity and Authorization Management (IAM) group at Quest Software. When Quest Software was acquired by Dell in September 2012, he continued to work on XACML authorization technologies under the title of Authorization Architect.
He lives on a small farm in the Santa Cruz mountains near Ben Lomond, California.


Crocker (name)

Crocker is a surname shared by several notable real and fictional people, among them being:


Cooper (surname)

Cooper is an English surname originating in England; see Cooper (profession). Occasionally it is an Americanized or Anglicized form of the German surname Kiefer. Cooper is the 4th most common surname in Liberia and 35th most common in England.


Carlos Cordeiro

Carlos Cordeiro (born 1956) is a sports executive. He was the president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) from February 10, 2018 until March 12, 2020 when he resigned after criticism over the legal stance taken by US Soccer under his administration towards the US women's national team.
Biography.
Cordeiro was born to a Colombian mother and father of Indo-Portuguese descent in Bombay. He moved to Miami, Florida at the age of 15 and is a graduate of Harvard University, where he earned an AB and MBA. Prior to joining the USSF in 2007 as an independent director, Cordeiro was a partner at Goldman Sachs and an independent director at BHP Billiton.


UN pension

UN pension is a retirement benefit provided by the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) under Article 28 of the Regulations, Rules and
Pension Adjustment System of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF Rules).
Eligibility.
A UN pension is payable to a participant whose age on separation is the normal retirement age or more and whose contributory service was five years or longer.
Taxation.
Unlike the UN salaries, the UN pension to former officials or to their survivors are not exempt from national income taxation. Applied tax rate depends exclusively on national legislation. Most of the countries tax the pension, but many grant exemptions for the lump sum pension payment. Countries which grant tax exemption for the UN pensions whether it is paid as a lump sum or as a monthly income are: Austria, Bahrain, Chile, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Thailand.
However, a different rule may apply to lump sum pension.
India.
UN pension is not subject of income taxes in India, per decision of the Calcutta High Court.
Canada.
UN pension in Canada is subject of the USA-Canada tax treaty under which pensions that arise in the USA are taxed in Canada on the same basis as they are taxed in the USA. However, there is a portion of the pension which can be tax exempt.
Cyprus.
Foreign pensions in Cyprus are taxed at a rate of 5% for amounts exceeding €3,420 annually.


Paul Lee (Canadian entrepreneur)

Paul Lee is a Canadian video game developer, venture capitalist, businessman and entrepreneur. He is the former President of Electronic Arts, a video game and interactive software company.
Early life and education.
Lee is of Chinese heritage and born and raised in Vancouver. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia, with a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours, and was one of six students selected to enter the prestigious Portfolio Management Fund program at the UBC Sauder School of Business, where he was a Leslie Wong Fellow.
Before his career as a game developer got off the ground, Lee worked at an investment manager at Chrysler Canada managing its pension fund, corporate cash, and health and welfare trust. During his school days Lee worked in his father’s Vancouver restaurant, Dragon Inn and at Save on Foods.
Career.
He joined Electronic Arts in 1991 and became an executive when it bought Distinctive Software Inc., a leading independent video game developer where he was part owner. He was the President of Worldwide Studios of EA from 2005 to 2007, where he was responsible for product development in 14 studios. managing 6,000 employees and $1 billion in annual capital.
He is Founder and Managing Partner of Vanedge Capital, a venture capital firm in Vancouver. Founded in 2010, the $137 million venture capital fund Vanedge backed Wurldtech, which was acquired by General Electric in 2014; Recon Instruments, which was acquired by Intel in 2015; Mediacore, which was acquired by Workday in 2015, Privacy Analytics, which was acquired by IMS Health in 2016. Other notable investments by Vanedge include Unity, SpaceX, OmniSci, Plotly, Echodyne, Vendasta, Planet and Go-Jek.
Prior to Vanedge Capital and while at Electronic Arts, Lee was a notable angel investor in the technology scene in BC, with investments in companies such as ALI Technologies, acquired by McKesson, Blast Radius acquired by WPP, Bycast acquired by NetApps, Active State acquired by Sophos, among others such as DWave Systems.
Lee talked about the lack of venture capital support for startups in British Columbia, and the reasons he decided to found a venture capital firm there in an interview in a BC Business interview.


George Meares

George Meares, (June 1825 – 8 December 1903) was Mayor of Melbourne 1880 and 1881, and a member of the Victorian Legislative Council 1882 to 1886.
Meares was the son of George Rochfort Meares, of County Westmeath, Ireland, and emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney in 1847 and moving to Melbourne in 1852. He was Mayor of Melbourne in 1880 and 1881, and a commissioner and member of the executive committee for the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880). He married in 1864 Miss Sarah Brooker Dixon, and was created C.M.G. in 1882.
Meares represented North Yarra Province in the Victorian Legislative Council from December 1882 to September 1886.
Meares died in Malvern, Victoria on 8 December 1903; he had three sons, and three daughters, his wife died in 1875. He was the grandfather of Ainslie Meares.


Al Khayat

Al Khayat, El Khayat may refer to:


Cowper (surname)

Cowper (pronounced "Cowper" or "Cooper" depending on family) is a surname of several persons:


Jim Knopf

Jim Knopf, nicknamed Jim Button ("Knopf" meaning "button" in German) (October 20, 1942 – October 1, 2013), was considered by many to be one of the "fathers" of shareware (so named by fellow software veteran Peter Norton). As an IBM employee, he wrote a program to help with a local church congregation. When demand for his program consumed too much of his time, he quit IBM and created Buttonware. He released his first program, PC-File (a flat file database), in late 1982 as "user supported software". He has been quoted as saying this expression not only reflected the optional payment model, but also that comments from users drove the development of later releases.
He collaborated with PC-Talk (communications software) developer Andrew Fluegelman to adopt similar names (PC-File was originally "Easy-File"), and prices, for their initial shareware offerings; they also agreed to mention each other's products in their program's documentation. Fluegelman referred to this distribution method as "freeware".
A few months later (early 1983), Bob Wallace followed suit, coining the term "shareware" for his similarly marketed product, PC-Write, a word processor.
, of the three founders of shareware, Knopf was the only one still alive, despite having a near-death experience in 1992, when his heart stopped beating briefly while experiencing a heart attack. Shortly thereafter, he sold all his business assets and retired to the Pacific Northwest. He died on October 1, 2013, after suffering for several years from heart disease and Crohn's disease.


CRN (magazine)

CRN was first launched as "Computer Retail Week" on June 7, 1982, as a magazine targeted to computer resellers. It soon after was renamed "Computer Reseller News" .
History and profile.
Originally launched in 1982 and published by CMP Media of Manhasset, New York, United States, "CRN" was subsequently purchased by London-based United Business Media (UBM) as part of the $920 million acquisition of CMP. "Computer Reseller News" later changed its name to the acronym CRN and is still published today by franchise publishers in a number of other countries including Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Australian "CRN" is published by nextmedia, the UK version of "CRN" is published by Incisive Media which acquired VNU Business Publications UK in 2007 and the U.S. version is published by The Channel Company which acquired UBM Channel under management buyout from UBM in 2013.
The headquarters of the magazine is in Westborough, Massachusetts. In 2009 "CRN"'s U.S. version was recognized as a leading advertising medium for the IT industry by B2B's Media Power 50 ranking, which called it the "unrivaled leader in covering the channel".
In January 2012, the UK version of "CRN" launched the CRN Sales and Marketing Awards. These awards recognise and reward the achievements of high-achieving information and communications technology companies.


Ian Meakins

Ian Keith Meakins (born 31 August 1956) is a British businessman. He was the chief executive of Wolseley plc, a British multinational building materials distribution company, from 2009 to 2016.
Early life.
He was educated at St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge.
Career.
From 1978 to 1985, Meakins was a brand manager with Procter & Gamble, from 1985 to 1988, a senior manager with Bain & Company, and from 1988 to 1991 a Founding Partner at Kalchas Group (management consulting). From 1992 to 2004, Meakins was with Diageo plc, rising to President of European Major Markets and Global Supply. He was CEO of Alliance UniChem plc until its merger with Boots in July 2006. Meakins later served as chief executive of Travelex Holdings Ltd.
Meakins was CEO of Wolseley plc from 13 July 2009 to August 2016, when he was succeeded by John Martin.
Meakins is also director of the Impetus Trust, and a non-executive director of Centrica plc.
Personal life.
Meakins is married, with three children.


General Electric employee vitality curve


Adam Chowaniec

Adam Chowaniec (1950–2015) was a Canadian engineer, entrepreneur, and educator. He is recognised as one of the Founding Fathers of the Personal Computer, by the Computer History Museum at Mountain View, California. In later life, Adam Chowaniec became a champion of Canadian business and entrepreneurship. He died, from cancer, in 2015.
Early life.
Chowaniec was born in Leeds, England, in 1950, the son of a Polish engineer (and former prisoner-of-war in Siberia) who had emigrated to England after World War Two. He studied Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, completing his undergraduate degree in 1971, and securing a Commonwealth Scholarship to Queen's University, to gain his master's degree. He obtained a PhD from Sheffield in 1975. After completing his studies, Chowaniec moved back to Canada to take up a post as Professor of Electrical Engineering at Acadia University, Nova Scotia.
Career overview.
In 1976 Chowaniec left academia for a career in engineering management, joining Bell-Northern Research, later to become Northern Telecom Limited (Nortel), a multinational telecommunications manufacturing corporation based in Mississauga, Ontario.
In 1983, Chowaniec joined Commodore International at West Chester, Pennsylvania to become Vice-President of World Product Development. The company had sold many millions of its popular Commodore 64 personal computer, but needed a new product to maintain its competitive position. Chowaniec later recalled that he was given 18 months to develop this new computer, complete with operating system, from scratch. The new machine was the Commodore Amiga, arguably the first multimedia PC, and although conceived as a business tool, its formidable graphics capabilities made it a very popular home computer. It sold between 4 – 6 million units, and provided a platform for iconic PC games including "Lemmings" and "Worms". Commentator Jeremy Reimer described it as "seem[ing] like it came from ten years in the future", while "Byte" thought it "so far ahead of its time that almost nobody – including Commodore's marketing department – could fully articulate what it was all about."
The Amiga was launched at the Lincoln Center in New York in July 1985, the first affordable PC offering full colour graphics with a palette of 4,096 colours. The artist Andy Warhol demonstrated its capabilities at the launch event by using it to "paint" a picture of Debbie Harry; the Blondie singer also attended, and performed, at the launch.
1986 saw Chowaniec return to Ottawa as President of CALMOS, which was seeking leadership with experience in the US technology marketplace. Under his management, the company doubled in size through a well-judged acquisition, and grew further after it won a large federal grant to work with a British partner on integrated circuit development. CALMOS was sold to Welsh businessman and entrepreneur Terry Matthews's Newbridge Networks in 1989.
In 1995, Newbridge Networks determined to divest itself of its microsystems division whilst retaining a financial interest in its future, and the division was sold into a new corporation to be known as Tundra Semiconductor, financed through private investment and venture capital. Chowaniec was one of the co-founders of this new enterprise, which he regarded as his proudest achievement; he went on to become its Chairman. The company went public early in 1999. Its shares, which opened at $9.25, were trading at $78 by March 2000, and the company was added to the major Toronto stock market indices.
Chowaniec served on a number of industry-related bodies, including the National Sciences and Engineering Council, the Information Technology Association, and the Public Sector Advisory Board. He was Chairman of the Ontario Research and Innovation Council for three years from 2006 to 2009, and served on the board of the Export Development Corporation, appointed by the Privy Council of Canada. In an interview with the "Financial Post", Terry Matthews described Chowaniec as "a kind of foundation stone for Canadian technology".
Community involvement.
In addition to his many business interests, Adam Chowaniec took an active role in more community-focussed initiatives, including the Ottawa Partnership and the Ottawa Health Research Institute. Chowaniec also chaired the national fundraising campaign for the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
Recognition, honours and awards.
Adam Chowaniec received several awards in recognition of his work. These included the Ottawa-Carleton Research Institute's Chairman's Award in 1998, and the Business Person of the Year Award from the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce in 1999; he received the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002 in recognition of his contribution to public life.
He is celebrated at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, as one of the Founding Fathers of the Personal Computer, in recognition of his work leading the team that developed the Amiga.


Jack Grace (Gaelic footballer)

Jack Grace (8 February 1884 – 9 March 1915) was an Irish Gaelic footballer and hurler. His championship career as a dual player with the Dublin senior teams spanned twelve seasons from 1901 until 1912.
Born in Tullaroan, County Kilkenny, Grace was one of eleven children born to Nicholas and Kate Grace (née Keoghan). Raised on the family farm, Grace was educated locally before moving to Dublin in his teens to take up a position in the drapery trade with Todd, Burns & Co.
After moving to Dublin, Grace joined the Kickhams club where he played both hurling and Gaelic football. He won four successive county football championship medals between 1904 and 1907, while he also won a county hurling championship medal with the club in 1908.
Grace was just eighteen-years-old when he made his debut on the inter-county scene as a member of the Dublin senior football team in the delayed 1901 championship. Over the course of the next decade, he won five All-Ireland medals, beginning with back-to-back wins in 1901 and 1902, followed by three successive championships between 1906 and 1908. He also won six Leinster medals. As a hurler, Grace was a three-time Leinster medal winner.
Grace's brothers, - Pierce and Dick - also had All-Ireland success in both codes with Kilkenny and Dublin. Between them, the three Grace brothers have a total of 15 All-Ireland medals.
Grace died from pneumonia on 9 March 1915.


Amy Hood

Amy E. Hood (born 1971 or 1972) is an American businesswoman currently serving as the chief financial officer at Microsoft Corporation.
Hood joined Microsoft in 2002 holding positions in the investor relations group. She also served as chief of staff in the Server and Tools Business as well as running the strategy and business development team in the business division. Previously, she worked at Goldman Sachs in various roles including investment banking and capital markets groups.
On May 8, 2013, Microsoft announced Hood would be replacing Peter Klein as the company's chief financial officer.
Hood holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University in 1994 and an MBA from Harvard University. She currently sits at the #28 spot in the Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women list.
Personal life.
Hood is married to Max Kleinman. Hood and Kleinman own a minority stake in Seattle Sounders FC, a Major League Soccer club.


William Pinker

William Albert Pinker OBE (9 May 1847 – 5 June 1932) was an English stonemason and museum technician at the British Museum, serving in the Department of Antiquities from 1873 and as foreman of masons from 1894.
Biography.
Pinker was born on 9 May 1847, in the village of Box, Wiltshire, the 5th of 9 children born to James Pinker (1810–1878) and Mary Chandler (1814–1882). He came from a long line of stonemasons and quarrymen, including his father, who worked in the Box Quarries mining Bath stone. From the age of around 6, Pinker joined his father and older brothers in the quarries, working as a "labourer". In the mid-1860s Pinker left Box and traveled to London, where he found employment as a mason in Kensington. Shortly afterwards, he met Jane Harris. They married on 31 December 1876 in Southwark. They would go on to have three daughters: Jennifer "Jenny" (1878–1970), Florence (1881–1929) and Rose (1884–1976).
Pinker became employed at the British Museum on 18 November 1872, and would go on to work there for just under 60 years. From 1 January 1873 he worked for the Department of Antiquities, and was foreman of masons from 1894. He undertook many highly skilled tasks, not only for the Department of Antiquities but also for other areas of the British Museum. He played a significant role in situating fragments of the Elgin Marbles, and also advised during the construction of the model of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Alexander Stuart Murray commented that Pinker's work was "more appropriate to a sculptor's assistant than to a mason." He retired on 5 April 1932, due to failing health. Two days before his death, he was granted an OBE in the 1932 Birthday Honours by King George V. Pinker died on 3 June 1932, at the age of 85. His life was the subject of an obituary in The Times.


Pensioner

A pensioner is a person who lives on a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of pensionable age may also be referred to as an 'old age pensioner'. In the United States, the term retiree is more common, and in New Zealand, the term superannuitant is commonly used. In many countries, increasing life expectancy has led to an expansion of the numbers of pensioners, and they are a growing political force.


Dan Rosensweig

Dan Rosensweig is an American business executive who is chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of student services company Chegg. Previously, Rosensweig served as president and CEO of "Guitar Hero"; COO at Yahoo!; president of CNET, and president and CEO of ZDNet.
Early life and education.
Rosensweig was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York and raised in Scarsdale, New York, where he graduated from Scarsdale High School. He played offensive lineman on the school's football team.
Rosensweig enrolled at Hobart and William Smith, graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. There, Rosensweig was a member of "Kappa Sigma" fraternity and the Little Theatre, and studied abroad in London.
Career.
Following college, Rosensweig's first job was at Dictaphone, then an independent subsidiary of Pitney Bowes, selling word processors door-to-door in Manhattan. Within three hours on the job, he was informed that the company had to lay off nearly 1,000 people, including his division.
In 1983, Rosensweig began working at Ziff Davis as a cold caller selling magazines to mom-and-pop computer retail stores, then worked his way up through the circulation department, to classified ad sales and display ad sales, and then to associate publisher of "PC Magazine". Under Rosensweig's leadership, "PC Magazine" became the leading computer magazine in both audience reach and revenue.
In 1996, Rosensweig led the Ziff Davis launch of a series of Internet print magazines, including, by license, the acclaimed "Yahoo! Internet Life". In 1998, he took over Ziff Davis' Internet Operation as president and CEO of ZiffNet, now known as ZDNet, where he took the company public and sold it to CNET, in 2001. Rosensweig played a critical role in the successful merger with CNET. During his tenure at CNET, Rosensweig served as a key participant in company-wide efforts to develop and introduce innovative new Internet advertising formats, such as interactive messaging.
In 2002, Rosensweig joined Yahoo! as COO, where he oversaw global operations through 2006, and developed a mentoring program.
In 2007, Rosensweig became a partner of private investment firm Quadrangle Group, founded by Steven Rattner, opening an office in Silicon Valley.
In March 2009, Rosensweig became president and CEO of "Guitar Hero"; under his management, the company launched "Band Hero" and "DJ Hero".
In February 2010, Rosensweig joined Chegg as president and CEO, where he has overseen expansion and multiple acquisitions, and heads operations and executive management. He launched the company's IPO in 2013. Chegg expanded from textbook rental into a portfolio of student services under his leadership, transforming Chegg's digital assets to meet student needs.
Rosensweig is a proponent of mentoring, and of workplace equality. He is an investor in many Silicon Valley companies, including Rent The Runway and Reputation.com.
Personal life.
Rosensweig is married and has two daughters. He is a noted fan of Bruce Springsteen.
Boards.
Rosensweig participates on the advisory board of NPO DonorsChoose.org, has served as a Executives in Residence for the mentoring program of The Media and Technology Program at Columbia University; and sits on the boards of directors of Adobe, Inc., VOX Media, Katalyst Media, Fender, and OZY Media, among others.
He also sits on the board at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where the Rosensweig Learning Commons, Warren Hunting Smith Library is named for him. He is a Colgate University "emeritus" trustee. He also works with the Boys and Girls Club.


John Vincent (restaurateur)

John Vincent MBE (born 28 September 1971) is a British entrepreneur who is the chief executive and co-founder of fast food chain Leon Restaurants. Vincent is also known for his work in developing the 2013 School Food Plan, for which he was appointed an MBE; for chairing the Council for Sustainable Business; and for co-authoring seven LEON cookbooks.
Early life.
Vincent was born in Enfield, London and grew up in north London. He attended Chaseside Primary School and Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an independent school in north London. Later, he went on to read History at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he obtained a first class degree. While at university, Vincent had his own entertainment production company, setting up and hosting dance and music events.
Career.
In 1993, following his graduation, Vincent went on to work at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in sales & marketing. In 1997, after four years at P&G, he moved to management consultancy firm Bain & Co. where he remained for the next seven years.
From 2004 until 2007, Vincent was part of a team of three that worked on the whisky and spirits business Whyte & Mackay during its rebranding and business transition under the ownership of Vivian Imerman.
Leon Restaurants.
It was while working at Bain & Co. that the idea for LEON was first developed:
 I sat down with a colleague of mine at the time, Henry Dimbleby, and we decided to write down five business ideas each. Good fast food was common on both lists. Henry had a vision of doing it in bowls. I had a vision of doing it more like McDonald’s. Eventually we decided to go down the McDonald’s route. The idea was simple: "If God did fast food." – John Vincent.
In 2004, joined by chef Allegra McEvedy as third co-founder, the first LEON restaurant was opened, at Carnaby Street, central London. A year after opening, LEON was named "Best New Restaurant in the UK" by "The Observer". In 2013 it became a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), and in 2018 was awarded the Association's top ranking of three stars; in 2017 it won Raymond Blanc's Sustainability Hero award at the Association's "Food Made Good" awards. Leon Restaurants was also named in the 2017 "Sunday Times" Fast Track 100.
In 2014 Vincent took over day-to-day running of LEON, moving into the role of Chief Executive Officer. Dimbleby left Leon Restaurants' board in 2017. LEON has since expanded internationally and launched its own cookware and tableware ranges.
The School Food Plan.
In 2013 Vincent and Dimbleby were asked to lead an independent review, commissioned by the UK Government of the school food programme. As part of that work they went on to produce an actionable plan called "The School Food Plan". The plan formed the basis of revised rules on school dinners for pupils throughout the UK.
The plan has overseen, among other changes, the introduction of cookery lessons for all children up to the age of 14, universal free school meals for infants, and new standards for the food served to children in schools.
The School Food Plan has improved the diet of five million students and served daily across 22,000 schools. Vincent and Dimbleby were both awarded MBEs in 2015 for services to school food. In 2017, Vincent received the Sustainable Restaurant Association's "Raymond Blanc Sustainability Hero" award along with Dimbleby for their work on the plan.
Council for Sustainable Business.
In 2018 Vincent was invited to help create and then chair the Council for Sustainable Business. The council was established to "inspire British business to protect and improve the environment", and to advise on how businesses can help achieve the aims of the 25 Year Environment Plan.
Books and newspaper column.
Vincent wrote a column for "Metro" in 2014 and 2015, and has co-authored and published seven LEON cookbooks; they include:
In November 2019 Vincent is co-authoring a book, "Winning Not Fighting", with Wing Tsun martial arts master Julian Hitch.
Personal life.
Vincent married broadcaster Katie Derham in 1999; he proposed on the night they met. They have two daughters and live near Haywards Heath, Sussex.


Communicate (magazine)

Communicate is a monthly trade magazine for the UK corporate communications community. "Communicate" covers corporate communications, public relations, investor relations, internal communications, corporate social responsibility, crisis communications and public affairs.
With a monthly circulation of 10,000, it is read by in-house communications departments in the private and public sectors as well as communications consultancies and service providers across the UK.
In addition to the magazine, Communicate publishes a weekly e-newsletter and hosts a website of the same name.
"Communicate" magazine is published by Andrew Thomas, and edited by Brittany Golob. It is owned by Cravenhill Publishing, an independent publishing company based in London.
Columnists and contributors.
Columnists and contributors have included:
Each issue features a profile of a key figure in corporate communications. These have included:
Jane Wilson of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Andraea Dawson-Shepherd of Reckitt Benckiser and Simon Lewis when he was head of comms at 10 Downing Street.
Events division.
Communicate organise a number of awards events and conferences on key areas of corporate communications.
Their awards events include:
Their conferences include:


Bob Muglia

Bob Muglia (born 1959) is an American business executive and research and development specialist. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Snowflake Computing, a data warehousing startup. Muglia is known for managing divisions at Microsoft that supported the Microsoft Office Suite, Windows Server and MSN Network product families. He was one of four presidents that reported directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Muglia held several executive positions at Microsoft before resigning from the company in 2011. He worked briefly for Juniper Networks, then accepted his position as CEO of Snowflake Computing in June 2014.
Early life.
Bob Muglia was born in 1959 in Connecticut. His father was an automotive parts salesman. Muglia started working at his first job when he was 15 years old. He moved to Michigan and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1981. After graduating, he started working for ROLM Corporation.
Career.
Microsoft.
Windows and business software.
Bob Muglia started his Microsoft career in 1988. He was the first product manager for SQL Server. Muglia also served as the director of Windows NT Program Management and User Education. He was promoted to vice president of the Windows NT division in October 1995. Muglia later held the position of vice president of the Server Application group, until he was promoted to senior vice president of the Applications and Tools group in February 1998.
Bob Muglia was influential in a corporate restructuring at Microsoft in 1999, which assigned business divisions to customer types, rather than technologies. As part of the re-structuring, Muglia became head of the business-productivity group, which oversaw Microsoft Office, Exchange and other business software. According to "Computer Reseller News", Muglia pushed developers to visit customers, created customer advisory boards and led other efforts to incorporate customer input into product development at Microsoft.
Muglia testified in the United States v. Microsoft Corp. antitrust lawsuit, and in a case between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems regarding Microsoft's use of Java. According to "New York Times" reporters Steve Lohr and Koel Brinkley, the judge embarrassed Muglia by rebuking him for his persistent characterization of an email from Bill Gates. Muglia also negotiated aggressively with RealNetworks, regarding an antitrust dispute between the two companies.
In August 2000, Muglia was appointed to vice president of a new .NET Services Group. The following year he was reassigned to focus on database technologies as senior vice president of the Enterprise Storage Services Group. He helped develop Microsoft's plan for autonomic computing, which was announced in March 2003. By early 2004, Muglia held the position of senior vice president of the Windows Server Division.
Servers and tools division.
Another re-organization at Microsoft in 2005 resulted in Muglia taking the position of Senior Vice President of Servers and Tools before being promoted to president of the division in 2009. This made Muglia one of four presidents at Microsoft.
During his tenure, the business group grew its revenues more than ten percent each year for six years. The division accounted for more than 20 percent of Microsoft's revenues by January 2009. In this position, Muglia led Microsoft's ten-year plan for data center and desktop automation products, its Dynamic Systems Initiative and its Dynamic IT strategy. In October 2010, developers criticized Muglia for suggesting Microsoft would put less emphasis on Silverlight; a statement he later retracted.
Muglia announced his resignation from Microsoft in January 2011; he was replaced by Satya Nadella, now Microsoft's CEO. He was the fourth executive reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to resign between early 2010 and 2011. According to "Financial Times", Ballmer credited Muglia for growing the servers and tools division, but implied the departure was related to disagreements between the two executives about the company's cloud computing strategy.
Juniper.
In July 2011, a few months prior to Muglia's last day at Microsoft, Juniper Networks announced it would hire Muglia as the executive vice president of its software division. He reported to then Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson, who (along with other Juniper staff) is also a former Microsoft executive. Muglia was hired to consolidate Juniper's software groups under a new division called Software Solutions. He also helped develop Juniper's software-defined networking (SDN) strategy.
In December 2013 Muglia quit Juniper, a month after Shaygan Kheradpir was appointed as the company's new CEO. Several other Juniper executives also left around this time.
Snowflake computing.
Bob Muglia was Chief Executive Officer of Snowflake Computing, a cloud-based data-warehousing startup until April 2019. He joined the company in June 2014, a couple years after it was founded in 2012. Snowflake Computing came out of stealth mode that October.


Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk

This is a list of people who have served as Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk. Since 1642, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Suffolk.


Mark Pincus

Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.
Pincus was named 2009 "CEO of the Year" at The Crunchies technology awards and a year later was named Founder of the Year at the 2010 ceremony. Zynga is considered to be the pioneer of the social gaming industry. In 2011, Zynga went public with a $1 billion IPO. Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital in 2018, an investment firm, with Reid Hoffman and hedge fund manager Michael Thompson. He co-created the Stanford Graduate School of Business course on Product Management with Professor Amir Goldberg.
Early life and background.
Pincus was born into a Jewish family in Chicago and raised in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. He is the son of Donna (née Forman) and Theodore Pincus. His father was a business columnist and public relations adviser to CEOs and politicians and his mother was an artist and architect.
Pincus attended Francis W. Parker School from kindergarten through 12th grade and graduated in 1984. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania earned in 1988 and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he founded the Communications Club with Sherry Coutu.
Career.
Financial services.
Before he became an entrepreneur, Pincus worked in venture capital and financial services for six years. After graduating from Wharton, Pincus spent two years working as an analyst in the New Media Group at Lazard Freres & Co. After that time, he moved to Hong Kong, where he served as a Vice President for Asian Capital Partners for two years.
He returned to the United States in order to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) where he was a contemporary of Chris Hohn, Guy Spier and Chris Shumway. He graduated in 1993 and also spent a summer as an associate for Bain & Co. in 1992.
After Pincus graduated from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc., which is now AT&T Cable. A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as Vice President, where he led investments in new media and software startups in Washington, D.C. for a year.
Entrepreneur.
Freeloader.
In 1995, Pincus founded his first startup, Freeloader, Inc. Freeloader was backed by Fred Wilson and Softbank. The company was acquired seven months after its launch by Individual, Inc., for $38 million. Sean Parker worked as a summer intern at Freeloader when he was 14 years old. He later went on to co-found Napster, and Pincus became Napster’s first investor with an investment of $100,000.
Support.com.
He then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As Chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider of help desk automation software. The company went public in July 2000 at a $1.5 billion valuation. In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.
Tribe.net.
In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, an early social network. Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed by The Washington Post, Knight Ridder Digital, and Mayfield Fund and Guy Spier. In 2007, Cisco Systems acquired the core technology of Tribe.net to develop a social networking platform for its digital media services group.
In 2003, Pincus and Reid Hoffman purchased the Six Degrees patent, a broad, sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct Sixdegrees.com company for $700,000. Pincus and Hoffman stated at the time that their objective in buying the patent was to protect innovation in social networking and to prevent large companies from interfering with this. Pincus and Hoffman have never enforced the patent.
Investing.
Pincus was a founding investor in Napster, Facebook, Friendster, Snapchat, Xiaomi and Twitter. He was also an early investor in JD.com, Brightmail (later acquired by Symantec for $400m), and Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce for $800m). In 2015, Pincus invested in the nootropics company HVMN (formerly Nootrobox), man-made diamond company Diamond Foundry, and in 2014 automated investment service firm Wealthfront, among others.
Zynga.
In July 2007 Pincus founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc. Zynga developed games on top of social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo.
In 2011, Pincus took the company public with a $1 billion IPO. Pincus served as CEO of the company from 2007 to 2013. On July 1, 2013, Zynga recruited Don Mattrick, the former president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, was to succeed Pincus as CEO. Pincus remained actively involved in the company as Chairman of the Board and Chief Product Officer, but stepped down from his role as chief product officer to focus on his role as chairman of the board, the company announced in April 2014.
Pincus returned to the role of CEO of Zynga in April 2015. On March 7, 2016, Pincus stepped down as CEO, but continued his association with Zynga as Executive Chairman of the Board with Frank Gibeau in the role of CEO. In 2018, citing his confidence in Zynga's management, Pincus voluntarily reduced his voting rights in the company from 70% to 10% and stepped back to a non-executive chairman role"."
Start-ups.
In 2014 Pincus started Superlabs, an incubator to develop products. Zynga acquired Superlabs in 2015.
In 2017, Pincus, alongside Reid Hoffman and Adam Werbach, launched Win the Future, a movement within the Democratic Party.
Philanthropy and community service.
Presidio Trust.
Pincus is a former member of the board of the Presidio Trust, a federal agency that operates and maintains the Presidio as part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area. He was appointed to the board by President Obama in 2017.
Zynga.org.
In October 2009, Pincus started Zynga.org, which is "committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods." Zynga.org has since raised more than $20 million for more than 50 international nonprofits by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes. During his time at Zynga Pincus created features for several gaming sites that allowed players to donate to the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA); two organizations in Haiti, FATEM and Fonkoze, raising $427,000 in less than three weeks in October 2009. In January 2010 Zynga.org had raised $1.5 million in five days for Haiti Earthquake relief. The money was distributed within just two days. The total Zynga.org raised during 2010 for earthquake relief in Haiti was $3 million. In 2011 they raised an additional $2 million for rescue efforts in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country.
On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100 percent of the proceeds from the purchase of virtual goods from more than seven of its games would go toward Japan's Save the Children Earthquake Emergency Fund. During the 2012 holiday season, Zynga.org partnered with Toys for Tots in its largest charitable campaign not related to disaster relief. The campaign raised $745,000, with 100 percent of the purchase price of certain virtual goods going to Toys for Tots.
In 2014, Zynga raised $1 million for Water.org, a Kansas City, Missouri-based charity that funds clean water projects in developing countries.
Zynga match.
Zynga announced in June 2020 that they created a $25 million fund to invest in charitable causes and educational organizations that promote diversity and inclusion.
Oakland Undivided Campaign.
In May 2020, Pincus donated $700,000 to the Oakland Unified School District and City of Oakland to help meet their $12.5 million goal towards eliminating the prevalent digital gap that exists in Oakland.
Roden Crater Project.
In February 2020, Pincus donated $3 million to Roden Crater, a large scale Land artwork by James Turrell within a dormant volcano in the Painted Desert region of Northern Arizona. The contributions bring the project closer to completion which the artist hopes to open within the next five years.
Bolinas COVID-19 testing.
In April 2020, Pincus, Finnish entrepreneur Jyri Engeström and biotech executive Cyrus Harmon, organized and financed community-wide COVID-19 testing in their hometown of Bolinas, California.  It was one of the first cases of community-wide testing in the US. Through their efforts Bolinas was able to test every one of its 1,600 residents for COVID-19 for free. Pincus donated the first $100,000 for the initiative, since it was not covered by government funds.
Canal Alliance.
Pincus donated over $100,000 to Canal Alliance in June of 2020. Canal Alliance works to provide relief from COVID-19 to families in need.
Political views.
In 2020, Pincus, along with many other Silicon Valley tech billionaires, gave the legal maximum dollar amount to support Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Pincus is a longtime supporter of Kamala Harris, whom he believes is qualified to navigate the relationship between Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley. Pincus co-hosted a fundraiser for her campaign in 2016 and has since publicly backed Biden’s presidential campaign alongside Harris.
Personal life.
In 2008, Pincus married Alison Gelb. She went on to found One Kings Lane, a furniture and home accessories sales website that was sold to Bed Bath & Beyond in 2016. They have three children, twin girls and a boy, and live in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. In March 2017, the couple divorced
Pincus spends his time away from work with his daughters, cycling, surfing, playing soccer and doing yoga.


Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev

Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev () (September 28, 1902 in Yefremov – October 14, 1978 in Moscow) was a Soviet aircraft designer, Major General of Engineering (1944), Hero of Socialist Labor (1957), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1959), Honoured Scientist of the RSFSR (1972).
After his graduation from Moscow State Technical University in 1926, Myasishchev worked at the Tupolev Design Bureau and took part in constructing airplanes, such as TB-1, TB-3, and Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky. As an assistant to Boris Pavlovich Lisunov, he traveled to the United States in 1937 to help translate the Douglas DC-3 drawings in preparation for the production of the Lisunov Li-2.
In 1938, Myasishchev became a victim of a repression campaign. While in confinement, he worked at NKVD's Central Design Bureau No. 29 (ЦКБ-29 НКВД) in Moscow under the guidance of Vladimir Petlyakov, designing the Pe-2 bomber. In 1940, after his release, Myasishchev headed a design bureau (in the same building), working on the long-range high-altitude bomber DVB-102 (ДВБ-102). In 1946–1951, Myasishchev was the head of the faculty and later dean of the Department of Aircraft Design at Moscow Aviation Institute. In 1956, he became chief aircraft designer. In 1960–1967, Myasishchev was appointed Head of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). In 1967–1978, Myasishchev held a post of the chief aircraft designer of the Experimental Machine Building Factory, which would bear his name starting 1981.
Myasishchev designed different kinds of military aircraft, including Pe-2B, Pe-2I, Pe-2M, DIS, DB-108, M-4, 3M, M-50. He also worked on a cargo aircraft VM-T Atlant and high-altitude airplane M-17 Stratosfera. Among Myasishchev's aeroplane designs, the 3M and M-4 set nineteen world records, and the M-17 "Stratosfera" twenty.
Myasishchev was awarded Hero of Socialist Labor gold star (in 1957), three Orders of Lenin (in 1945, 1957, 1962), the Order of Suvorov II degree (in 1944), the Order of the October Revolution (in 1971), and medals.


Elizabeth W. Smith

Elizabeth Weinberg Smith (born 1952 or 1953) is an American non-profit administrator and former government employee, currently serving as the President and CEO of the Central Park Conservancy, the New York City nonprofit that raises 75% of Central Park's annual budget and is responsible for management of the 843-acre park. In the role, Smith oversees strategic planning, park operations, capital programming, public programming, development, marketing, and communication strategies.
Smith previously served as Assistant Commissioner of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation under Mayor Michael Bloomberg following a 25-year career in finance.
Early life.
Smith was born in 1952 or 1953. She grew up in Rye, New York, and graduated from Rye Country Day School and Scripps College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After graduating from college, Smith moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Career.
Smith assumed the role of President and CEO of the Central Park Conservancy on March 1, 2018. Prior to her appointment, she served on the Board of the Conservancy since 2014 and on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Urban Parks, the Conservancy's educational arm.
Smith previously served as NYC Parks Assistant Commissioner during the Bloomberg administration, with responsibility for the agency's concession portfolio as well as its annual roster of all major special events on city parkland. In addition, she managed relationships with an expanding portfolio of conservancies and other public-private partnerships, serving as principal liaison with the agency. During her tenure, she also oversaw the marketing and corporate sponsorship departments as well as numerous special projects focused on strategic planning, staffing models, and branding. On March 30, 2011, she was presented with NYC Parks’ Commissioner's Award for her outstanding leadership.
After leaving NYC Parks at the end of the Bloomberg Administration in 2013, Smith remained an active supporter of urban parks and open spaces. Until March 1, 2018, she served as a board member of Friends of the High Line and the Open Space Institute, and as Vice Chair of New Yorkers for Parks, in addition to her role on the Central Park Conservancy's Board of Trustees.
Prior to joining New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Smith had a 25-year career in finance. She started her professional career in commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase before transitioning to venture capital and private equity management at Prospect Group Inc. and at the family offices of Harry F. Oppenheimer and the Rockefeller Financial Group. She later ran client services and finance at Sotheby's before joining the Bloomberg administration in 2002.
In addition to her involvement in parks and open spaces, Smith is Chair of the Board of the Library of America, a nonprofit publisher of significant American writing. She previously was a longtime board member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Scripps College.
Personal life.
Smith married Rick Cotton in 2011. Cotton was appointed by Andrew Cuomo in 2017 to run the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. On 9 March 2020, it was reported that Smith and her husband both had been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019. The couple were reported to have self-quarantined in their home.