From Newsgroup: alt.obituaries

2017 CHM Fellow

We are saddened to share that 2017 CHM Fellow Cleve Moler passed away
on May 20, 2026, at the age of 86 at his home surrounded by his family.

Moler was a visionary mathematician, computer scientist, and cofounder
of MathWorks. Recognized globally as the creator of MATLAB, Moler revolutionized numerical computing and transformed how scientists,
engineers, and researchers model the world.
The Mozart of the Matrix

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1939, Moler was a precocious student
who discovered a passion for numerical analysis at Caltech, graduating
with a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1961. He earned his PhD at
Stanford University under legendary computer science pioneer George
Forsythe, initiating a lifelong fascination with matrices.

Over a distinguished 20-year academic career spanning the University of Michigan and the University of New Mexico, Moler sought to make complex mathematics accessible. In the 1970s, after co-authoring the LINPACK
and EISPACK Fortran libraries, he created the first version of MATLAB
("Matrix Laboratory") as a simple, interactive calculator to help his
students bypass Fortran programming.

Recognizing its vast potential beyond the classroom, Moler partnered
with Jack Little and Steve Bangert to commercialize the platform for
the nascent IBM PC, founding MathWorks in 1984. Under his guidance as
chief mathematician, MATLAB grew from a classroom utility into a global ecosystem utilized by millions across aerospace, genetics, finance, and engineering. As colleague, friend, and supercomputing pioneer Jack
Dongarra notes, "Through MATLAB, Cleve changed the way generations of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and students think about
computation, experimentation, and problem solving."

Honored as a Computer History Museum Fellow in 2017, Moler leaves a
legacy defined by profound intellectual humility and an enduring impact
on modern technology. To a person, those who knew him speak of his
kindness, willingness to listen and gentle mentorship. He is remembered
as a brilliant educator and the maestro who taught computers to speak
the elegant language of the matrix.

A History of MATLAB, Moler, C., Little, J., Published in Proceedings of
the ACM on Programming Languages, Vol. 4, No. HOPL, June 2020.

The post In Memoriam: Cleve Moler (1939-2026) appeared first on CHM.

https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-memoriam-cleve-moler-1939-2026/
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Eduardo.M
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