RIP: Bill Manning

Tue Jan 28 22:38:35 UTC 2020

I also had the good fortune of working with Bill. I learned a lot from him,
both while he was officially our vendor, and afterwards, when he was always
ready and willing to provide insight and advice when I asked. He was
absolutely one of those rare individuals who would never hesitate to help
out behind the scenes without any expectation of reward or recognition. A
simple personal thank you was always appreciated, and even that seemed to
surprise him, as if he really didn't even believe he'd done anything. He
will be missed.

-R>

On Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 8:20 AM Don Wilder <don.wilder at gmail.com> wrote:

> I too am saddened by this news. I had the honor to work with Bill during
> our time together at ARIN. The world is dimmed by his passing.
> ---------------------------------------------
> Don Wilder
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build
> bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce
> bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 5:54 PM Rabbi Rob Thomas <robt at cymru.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear team,
>>
>> I was very sad when I heard this news.  Bill was a fun and friendly
>> presence, and patiently mentored me in my early days.  I’ll never forget
>> when he scrawled “I love bots” on one of my NANOG badges.  I still have
>> it.  :)  I had the fortune to be on a couple of panels with him, and I
>> learned from his answers and the way he presented them.  I admire that he
>> cared, and he gave of himself without hesitation.  I will miss him and his
>> contributions.
>>
>> Zichrono livracha, Bill’s memory is definitely for blessing.
>>
>> Be well,
>> Rabbi Rob.
>>
>>
>> > On Jan 27, 2020, at 3:34 PM, Brett Watson <brett at the-watsons.org>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > I was saddened to see this yesterday, that Bill Manning had passed. I
>> was surprised this morning that it hadn’t hit NANOG yet but thought I’d
>> post something because I have a ton of respect for Bill as I’m sure many
>> here do.
>> >
>> > I met Bill as a very young, thought-I-knew-everything network engineer
>> around ’92 when I was starting my internet life at a small ISP in Houston.
>> Bill was visiting Stan Barber @ Sesquinet, which was my upstream provider
>> at the time via T1, if I remember it all correctly.
>> >
>> > I was young, fresh out of college with a CS degree, and learning this
>> “internet thing.” I met with Bill on campus at Rice University to discuss
>> networking/routing, and Bill taught me CIDR, which I had no f-ing idea at
>> that time what it was. Bill was always gracious and willing to share/teach.
>> We always chatted and stayed in touch at NANOG and IETF conferences and
>> through his relationship with Los Nettos over the years. Most notable, to
>> me, was 2007 when my youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer, and I
>> believe Bill’s wife had (or previously battled) cancer as well. I hadn’t
>> seen Bill for a few years, but he immediately reached out, shared his
>> positive thoughts/prayers, and kept in touch during the battle we went
>> through. Bill cared about people, and as noted below, he was smart as hell,
>> and always had a crazy idea for how to solve a problem. Also as noted in
>> Rod’s note below, Bill had a wealth of music knowledge and could always
>> recommend something new and interesting to listen to.
>> >
>> > I’ll definitely miss Bill, and his passing makes me feel the years, and
>> the mileage, but in a good way.
>> >
>> > -b
>> >
>> >>> This morning I talked to Julie Manning, Bill's wife. Bill died early
>> >>> Saturday morning, at home in Oregon.  Most of you know Bill was
>> >>> waiting for a new heart. He would perhaps have gotten one next
>> >>> month. I guess the old one just wouldn't hold out long enough.
>> >>>
>> >>> I first met Bill in about 1995, when I returned to ISI after my first
>> >>> stint in Japan.  He had taken a position in the Los Nettos project at
>> >>> ISI, a regional network project in the days when Internet service and
>> >>> operations work was still heavily shared between business and
>> >>> academia.  Bill brought an operator's eye to the project, often seeing
>> >>> things differently from the researchers in the group.
>> >>>
>> >>> Bill kept the most erratic hours of any non-student I've ever met.  He
>> >>> might be in the office at 2am or at 2pm, either was equally likely.
>> >>> I'd ask, "Bill, what time did you come in?" He'd reply, "10am."  "I
>> >>> was here before that, and you were already here, it must have been
>> >>> earlier."  "Greenwich Mean Time."
>> >>>
>> >>> And in one phase of life, "Bill, where do you live?" "Seat 4A."  He
>> >>> would speculate about his average altitude and speed over the previous
>> >>> month.
>> >>>
>> >>> And, like any good geek, Bill had a spectacular collection of tie-dye
>> >>> t-shirts.  He came by the look honestly: growing up in the Bay Area,
>> >>> he had actually snuck into Grateful Dead rehearsals held in a barn,
>> >>> and had traveled as a deadhead for a while.
>> >>>
>> >>> At ISI, we called Bill "the bad idea fairy".  He always brought a
>> >>> slightly-off-kilter view of technical problems, which triggered
>> >>> endless discussions of fascinating, if usually implausible,
>> >>> alternatives.
>> >>>
>> >>> He had the most broad-ranging musical tastes of anyone I knew, and
>> >>> would eat almost anything (though, like me, he didn't drink alcohol).
>> >>> I was often envious of his eating and musical experiences.  He
>> >>> certainly lived life to its fullest.
>> >>>
>> >>> On one occasion, I recall, we were eating lunch in a Thai restaurant
>> >>> for the first time.  Bill called for the food "the way you'd make it
>> >>> in Thailand".  The waiter went back into the kitchen and came out with
>> >>> a few raw Thai chiles.  Bill ate one whole, without even breaking a
>> >>> sweat.  The owner of the restaurant immediately came out to see who
>> >>> was eating them.  Pam became a friend to our group.
>> >>>
>> >>> On other occasions, when the waiter asked for his order, Bill would
>> >>> point to another person at the table, and say, "I'll have what she's
>> >>> having."  "Well, what is she having?" "I don't know, I haven't heard
>> >>> her say."  Once in a while, he would point to someone else in the
>> >>> restaurant and say, "I'll have what they are having."  It was funny
>> >>> and sometimes disconcerting, which was very Bill, and it was also his
>> >>> way of making sure he himself was eating (and thinking and doing) as
>> >>> broadly as possible, without getting stale.
>> >>>
>> >>> Bill worked in a bakery before joining Texas Instruments and
>> >>> accidentally falling into computer networking.  (When we first met, he
>> >>> was commuting between Houston and L.A.; Julie and the kids were still
>> >>> in Houston.)  I believe he attended a series of colleges but never
>> >>> finished his bachelor's degree.  Just a few years ago, however, Jun
>> >>> Murai convinced him to get a Ph.D.; this took clearing administrative
>> >>> hoops to demonstrate that Bill's life experience matched that of a
>> >>> bachelor's degree, which it certainly did.  I was honored to be on his
>> >>> Ph.D. committee.  I literally created a "trouble ticket" accounting
>> >>> scheme to track change requests for his thesis.
>> >>>
>> >>> Bill was a valued member of the WIDE Project here in Japan.  He worked
>> >>> with the DNS root operations group here, and participated in as many
>> >>> WIDE meetings as he could.  He also came to Keio University's Shonan
>> >>> Fujisawa Campus when he was in Japan, and one of the best things about
>> >>> Bill was how seriously he took the students and their work, treating
>> >>> them like adult colleagues.
>> >>>
>> >>> Bill had friends on all seven continents, and for all I know on the
>> >>> International Space Station, as well. He was loved by us all.
>> >>>
>> >>> Julie does not plan to have a funeral immediately, so there is no need
>> >>> for flowers or the like. The family may do a memorial service in Utah
>> >>> in the spring.
>> >>>
>> >>> He was a unique and wonderful human being. And a good friend.
>> >>> Rest in peace, Bill.
>> >>>
>> >>> —Rod
>> >
>> >>
>>
>> --
>> Rabbi Rob Thomas                                           Team Cymru
>>    "It is easy to believe in freedom of speech for those with whom we
>>     agree." - Leo McKern
>>
>>
>>
>>
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