It is with a heavy heart that we here at Make: announce the passing of hobby robotics pioneer, Gordon McComb. He died on Monday, Sept 10th, apparently of a heart attack. Gordon was a great friend to Make: and to makers and robotics hobbyists from around the world.
Gordon McComb wrote more than 65 books and thousands of magazine articles--more than a million copies of his books are in print, in more than a dozen languages. He's has been called "The Godfather of hobby robotics" by MAKE Magazine.
Gordon’s Robot Builder’s Bonanza, first published in 1987, was a key piece of the beginning of hobby robotics. I have the third and fourth editions and the first and second editions are on their way.Gordon was a friendly and active member of the Parallax Forums. We corresponded a good bit and Gordon was a kind, gentle, encouraging and helpful voice. He was an enthusiast, and an excellent teacher and guide.
Gordon's Robot Builder’s Bonanza, Fifth Edition is available for pre-order now on Amazon.com and due to be released on December 14 of this year. I've already ordered mine. Gordon will be greatly missed.
One of my treasured memories of Gordon will always be the bit of Parallax Forum correspondence... You can click the images to enlarge them or read them (and see the video) on the Forums here. There is nothing like getting a pat on the back from one of your heroes!
UPDATE: Gordon's website is here - http://www.robotoid.com and here is a great photo of Gordon with friends Jon (left) and Eric (erco - right) - talking robots - as you can see. This was shared by Eric on his Facebook page.
Another great photo of Gordon and Eric was "discovered" in the Parallax Forums here - https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1312282/#Comment_1312282
No comments:
Post a Comment