Recollections Of Richard (Early 2005)
A bit more than a year has passed;  Memories fade, so before it all fades, I feel compelled to jot down
some of my recollections of working with Richard. Please forgive me if my ramblings
are excessively self indulgent.

I first met Richard sometime in 1997. Charlie Telesco had contacted Frank Varosi at
Goddard to inquire about software engineering support for the proposed new mid-IR
instrument T-ReCS. Frank was unavailable at the time and gave Charlie my name.
After exchanging emails and phone conversations, I found my way to the Astronomy
dept. one sunny Florida day where I met Charlie, Robert Pina, Kevin Hanna, and Jeff
Julian, and of course Richard, for the first time in person. We went out to lunch at
Cafe Gardens -- Charlie, Robert, myself, and Richard. I don't remember anyone else
at the table; I do recall that Richard was cordial but did little talking (later I realized I
could not remember Richard's name and had to ask Robert). Charlie and Robert
took much of the initiative in conversation, outlining the bright shining dreams and ambitions
about the future of the instrumentation group and the need for software support. I think
I had a somewhat skeptical expression on my face, but I listened to it all. The question
I asked myself at the time is: why are these astronomers not hiring post docs. and grad.
students for the software; why do they feel the need for senior software engineering
staff? Later I learned just how complex the software control systems for the new
observatories are, and came to fully appreciate their concerns. So I started working
part time on the T-ReCS software design proposal, mostly with Robert Pina.
It seemed at the time that the focus would be on T-ReCS first, but that Richard
quietly (tacitly) backed the idea of hiring software staff.  As it turned out, Flamingos-1
would be my first UF instrument. My first direct involvement with (ground based)
observational astronomy was with Richard Elston and Nick Raines at Kick Peak and
Mount Hopkins.

During the 'fabrication' of Flamingos-1, Richard would occasionally stop in the lab. or may office
to discuss the software. I was pleasantly surprised at how agreeable and flexible he was about
all my decisions and ideas. Early on we decided that I would simply write TReCS code
in a modular and layered library fashion that would  allow construction of  applications for either
TReCS or Flamingos-1. This set of libraries was dubbed 'UFlib'. This meant that Richard was
accepting additional complexity and risk for Flamingos-1 which he might regret, but that would allow me
to develop and test a more unified body of software. Testing of Flamingos-1 software components
would benefit TReCS and vice-versa.

As more and instrument hardware became available and I could test things, Richard would come into
the lab. to chat. I remember asking him about our schedule and lab. hours and also indicated that all
the software would be networked base so that we could even work with and test the instrument via
the Internet from home. He was particularly happy about that. With the arrival of Joseph, he was spending
more time working from home. I recall asking him about that and he joked about how he could sit
by his pool-side and use his laptop to control the instrument. He said, "and of course when you live
in Florida you gotta have a pool!".

Finally the day came that we could actually take images with Flamingos cooled down. Back then
IDL did not directly support network sockets, so I had written a simple socket shared library
for use in IDL (which was later enhanced by Frank Varosi for TReCS), and showed Richard
and Nick how to load it into IDL and use it to interface to the 'UFlib' applications (daemons) and
command the instrument and display the acquired exposures. I had assumed then Richard
and Nick would then be able to use whatever IDL libraries they trusted to analyze the images, etc.
But as it turned out neither of them had much interest in IDL. Richard indicated he preferred to use
IRAF. I have a vivid memory of an entire  weekend we all spent in the lab. testing the freshly integrated
Flamingos-1. We were using Solaris/Intel for Flamingos, but no IRAF binaries were available at the
time, so I devoted much of that weekend to building IRAF from source. As testing progressed, Richard
scheduled the first observing run and sent me out to Kitt Peak in advance to arrange all the computing
issues.

I recall at least two scouting trips to Tucson, one to Kitt Peak and another to Mount Hopkins (MMT),
and then another trip where I (and a student named Danny) installed & tested some of the Flamingos software
at the Kitt Peak 2m. We were expecting shipment of the entire system to Kitt Peak when word got to
us of a hardware glitch in the lab -- this caused another two months or so delay. Finally Nov. of 2000
the entire system was shipped and Richard and Nick and I conducted our first Flamingos-1 commissioning
at the Kitt Peak 2m. During our lab. tests, I had asked Richard how he wanted to conduct observations, that
is what level of automation did he need? We decided that we would write observation scripts in Perl,
which had become a very popular scripting language. The only problem was that none of us actually
had any experience with it. The 'UFlib' stuff was mostly C++, with some C, and Java, and of course IDL;
but Richard did not care for IDL scripts. So we all got excited about learning Perl.

I have vivid memories of sitting in the 2m control room, with everyone furiously learning and writing and testing
Perl observing scripts. I wrote some simple scripts that demonstrated how Perl could be used to interact
with the 'UFlib' daemons (agents), and Nick and Richard (mostly Nick) took those and elaborated them
substantially. But there where a ton of hardware issues at the 2m, many ultimately due to noisy power,
etc. There were lots of power interruptions that seriously affected the computer systems. On some occasions
I had to restore the entire software system via ftp'd source from UF and the Solaris CDs. It was a very busy,
and stressful time of long days and nights. NOAO visitors came by to observe us; and made note of all the
busy typing -- word got out that the Flamingos software was still incomplete and since it was meant to be
used for TReCS, Gemini (Doug Simons) expressed concerns. Fortunately Richard came to my rescue by
declaring that all the TReCS related software had proved to be the most reliable elements of the system. It was the
hardware issues and the Perl scripting (not intended for use in TReCS) that consumed our attention. Near the
end of the 2m run, after everything had settled down and Flamingos was collecting exposures fairly reliably,
Richard drove me back to Tucson for my flight back to Florida.

Richard and I were exhausted, but able to relax a bit as we drove down the Kitt Peak mountain at dawn. We chatted
about a number of things as the sun rose to produce a scenic mountain dawn. Richard was very pleased with how
helpful Nick had been. He was very cordial to me and thanked me profusely for all of my help. I was of course quite
flattered. We joked about the stress and the notion that Flamingos-1 was allegedly a 'shared risk' joint venture for Kitt
Peak and UF (it was funded as a Kitt Peak facility instrument). Richard joked that ALL the risk seemed to be taken by
us at UF, while the Kitt Peak people merely observed our hard work. Indeed I  marveled at how hard Richard worked
at the 2m, so much sleep deprivation, so much hard work at fairly high altitude. Just that summer he had is first chemo.
treatments; he still had that cough that never fully disappeared. I worried that he pushed himself too hard, but he seemed
to enjoy it. One quiet moment in the 2m control room he looked around and recalled how many, many nights he had
spent there -- a combination of whimsy and pride -- Kitt Peak had been a very big part of his life.

Well I went back to UF and resumed work on T-ReCS; but there were upcoming Flamingos-1 commissioning
runs at the Kitt Peak 4m and the MMT. I made mention of my plans to go back to Kitt Peak to work at the 4m
during a T-ReCS meeting. Charlie was very concerned that I would be ignoring T-ReCS software. Evidently
there was quite a bit of dispute between Richard and Charlie over my plans to devote more time to
Flamingos-1 commissioning. At the time I was essentially unaware of it, later I expressed interest in seeing
the email exchanges between Richard and Charlie, but Richard declined. I did, however, find my way back to
Kitt Peak and the 4m, then Mt Hopkins and the MMT, and even back to the 4m at Kitt Peak and Gemini South
in Chile.

The Kitt Peak 4m is truly a monument to ground based astronomy. Built in the early 1960s, it strikes one as
being somewhat like a cathedral on a mountain top. It has many very large interior spaces and many small
ones, all connected via a veritable labyrinth of hallways and stairwells. It is very easy to lose one's way,
especially in the dark -- one cannot possibly survive the 4m without a flash light (or torch as some might say).
As a monument, the 4m gets its share of tourists, and there are spaces and windows in place that allow the
tourists to observe the astronomers and engineers at work. One noteworthy incident I recall quite vividly
is a group of tourist coming by as Richard and Nick and I were going about our business; Richard
waved to them as the left, with a cheery reminder to 'keep sending in those tax dollars!". I enjoyed it
so much that I proceeded to make it a habit to issue that reminder every time I encountered any tourists
at the summit.

On our first night or second of observing at the 4m with Flamingos, a young man arrived in the control room
with all of his life's possessions in his ragged backpack. He was a young Englishman named Mathew Horrebin,
Elizabeth's new post-doc. It took us a while to figure this out. Whenever Matthew spoke, none of us could make
out what he said and we would have to ask him to repeat himself and enunciate more carefully. Matthew had
the most peculiar british accent any of us had ever encountered. Richard indicated that his very first conversation
with Matt had been over the phone. Matthew had called Richard at the behest of Elizabeth to look into arrangements
for meeting us at the 4m. It took Richard quite a bit of time and effort to eventually figure who was on the
other side of the phone line. After a few minutes of frustrating attempts to communicate, Richard finally
came to the conclusion the individual on the phone was indeed speaking English. Evidently Matthew had
an easier time understanding our American English, so we eventually managed things. At the end of
the first 4m commissioning, we all went down to Tucson to celebrate at one of Richard's favorite Mexican
restaurants. As we sat and drank our beers, something unexpected happened. After my 2nd beer, I realized
that I was understanding what Matthew said on the very first iteration, without having to ask him to repeat
himself. I turned to Richard and remarked on this and his eyes lit up as he realized he too had enjoyed the
same. We speculated whether the beer was improving our ability to hear, or Matthew's enunciation,
or both. We concluded that Matthew was one of those types whose enunciation actually improves
with inebriation.

I recall Mathew and Nick and Richard and I followed that first 4m commissioning with a trip to Mt.
Hopkins and the MMT. We flew in to Tucson, fetched Flamingos on a truck, and drove up to
the Mt Hopkins lodge. A heavy snow had fallen and the final stretch of road to the MMT summit was iced.
So we were forced to hole-up in the lodge an extra night and 1/2 day or so, waiting for conditions
to improve. The Mt. Hopkins lodge is quite pleasant, with a small library, a large kitchen, and
a spacious lounge with TV and pool table. Matthew and Nick played pool. I stretched out on a sofa
with a book I had selected from the library entitled "Cosmology Now".

As I leafed through the pages of the book, "Cosmology Now", Richard got off the phone (talking to
Elizabeth) and sat down at the couch nearby. I asked Richard to remind me about the nature of
his work, which he termed as "Observational Cosmology", and as he talked I looked down at the page
of the book; something I saw and something he was saying struck me. There was some sort
of observational issue described in the book that I asked him about -- the book was 25 years old or
so and I assumed the issue/puzzle had been resolved by now. Oddly Richard, nor for that matter
Nick and Matt seemed to be aware of. I teased Richard about it and it was clear from his facial
expression that he was quite puzzled by what I had found in the book. As I read on I chuckled
and teased him some more, which took in his very good natured way. Finally I revealed that the
book indicated the entire issue/puzzle had actually been revealed as an observational error, and the
'discovery/puzzle' simply faded away in the history books. I could tell Richard was relieved -- for
a moment I had confounded him with an aspect of observational cosmology that he was unfamiliar
with, one that had turned out to be a blind alley and long since forgotten.

At last the weather cleared and we assaulted the Mt. Hopkins summit. Flamingos-1 was installed
on the telescope and our computer control system plugged into the network and we all settled
down to for some long nights. One night things were going smoothly and I decided I would try to
install an upgrade to the rackmount's network driver to include some firewall features. It was allegedly
something that could be installed dynamically with everything else still running. Alas when I started
to execute the new system network software it promptly crashed the entire observatory LAN.
Richard and I rushed out into the dome with a ladder and he climbed up to the enclosure. He looked
down at me an asked what to do --power-cycle or reset? I scratched my chin a bit and said,
let's try a reset and see if we can reboot the system in non-networked mode. In the meantime
the telescope operator rebooted the rest of the observatory LAN. I wrestled with uninstalling the new
driver and eventually we got everything up and running again. What impressed me about the whole
avoidable event was how calmly Richard (and the MMT operator) reacted and handled things.

I believe that Flamingos-1 MMT run was immediately followed by another KittPeak 4m run. Nick
had rented a rather large truck and he and Matt drove it and Flamingos-1 from Mt. Hopkins to
Kitt Peak, while Richard and I followed in a rental car. I recall a conversation with Richard in either
that car drive or some other across southern Arizona. We passed a sign along a highway that pointed
to civil war memorial. Richard informed me that there had been exactly one civil war battle in
arizona and suggested that we visit the memorial if we had a chance. I was quite surprised, few
people know about it (and now I know about it). Evidently Richard knew quite a bit about it and
he provided some tidbits. The story goes that some Texans had decided to form a small confederate
army and march north to surprise a Union army. Somehow the Mormons in Utah learned about this
and decided (as vehement abolitionist as they were) to do something about it. So the Mormons formed
a small army and marched south. Evidently the Mormon army caught up with the Texan army in Arizona
and took them by surprise, winning handily. The Texans hightailed it back home.

Back at the KittPeak 4m we setup Flamingos-1 and started another observing run. At this point
I planned to stay just one night and head back to UF. In fact I don't recall ever going back to either
Mt. Hopkins or KittPeak since then. That last night that I was present at the 4m was quite pleasant,
except for the fact that I had a caught a cold and was relying on Nyquil and lots of hot tea to get by.
I remember telling Richard that the Nyquil definitely helped me breath easier and sleep, but my sleep
seemed to anything but dreamless. He laughed and recalled that he had a friend visiting once that
was found sleep-walking after taking a dose of Nyquil.

Either that night or perhaps some prior 4m run I recall things being fairly quiet and we were waiting for
some clouds to clear. Matt was monitoring the weather for us on the Internet. For some reason
the group of us started a conversation about the etymology of our names -- Matthew is of course
a New Testament name and David an Old Testament name, but no one knew about Richard.
Matt found a web page that answered it. Richard is a name introduced to English by
the Normans and derives from Leader (or Ruler). We all chuckled at how appropriate it
was to have a P.I. named Richard. In Richard's case a much beloved leader/ruler indeed.