Richard Walter Conway

Computer science

In the Fall 1956 semester, Conway created and taught Cornell's very first course on digital computers, entitled "Computers and Data Processing Systems", using an IBM 650. The assignment had been urged by Schultz, while Conway was still in the middle of his doctoral studies. The new department was shared between the Arts and Engineering schools, The academic and data processing functions were combined in Langmuir Laboratory near Tompkins County Airport. CORC (for Cornell computing language), developed with his colleague William L. Maxwell, was a simple language intended to serve lay users, namely for students and faculty to use to solve mathematics and engineering problems. It was loosely related to both FORTRAN and ALGOL but far simpler and smaller, and due to being designed for the era of punched cards and slow job turnarounds, the CORC compiler made every attempt to bypass or correct errors in the submitted code. PL/C became widely used in teaching programming, and eventually there were over 250 other institutions using it. It also introduced considerations of program correctness, becoming the first introductory textbook to do so. Conway was acting chair of the department at that time. Conway was one of the very few "systems" people there. Conway gradually became dissatisfied with the theoretical direction. He also taught some introductory data processing courses to business students. He also resumed working with Maxwell, in a collaboration that now stretched over three decades. The XCELL tool was made commercially available via an Ithaca-based firm called Express Software Products, Inc. There was also an educational version. The XCELL tool achieved a fair degree of use. With additional functionality, it was renamed XCELL+ and went through several releases over the next few years.

By 1993, Conway had been named the Emerson Electric Company Professor of Manufacturing Management. At that point he became, in the words of a biographical assessment written for the journal Production and Operations Management, "one of very few people to receive a varsity letter, a PhD, and an endowed chair, all from Cornell."

After gaining funding from the National Science Foundation, as the program was coordinated with Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations as well as the College of Engineering. The Semester in Manufacturing immersive was subsequently renamed the Semester in Strategic Operations, and it and a number of other immersives remain a signature feature of the Johnson School into the 2020s.

Conway retired from the Cornell faculty around 1999 and became a professor emeritus. However the project does not seem to have reached publication.

Conway died on March 19, 2024.

Accolades and awards In addition to his academic work, over the years Conway served as a consultant for several organizations and businesses.

The History of Computing at Cornell University has stated, "Conway played a major role in the development of computing on the campus for ... 20 years or so in a variety of capacities." He was named an inaugural Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences in 2002.

Upon his death, the Conway-Walker Lecture Series within the Department of Computer Science was co-named (joining Robert J. Walker) to commemorate his contributions. 2002 Roger G. Sargent interviews Conway for The NC State University Libraries Computer Simulation Archive, 2011 Roger G. Sargent interviews William L. Maxwell and Conway for The NC State University Libraries Computer Simulation Archive, 2011 David Gries interviews Conway for the Cornell ecommons collection, 2015