Tribute to Dr. Len Levine

It is with sadness, but also thankfulness for a life well-lived that I wanted to mention the passing of Dr. Len Levine, my friend and mentor, and accomplished physicist, engineer, computer scientist, and professor, who passed away last night at the age of 89, just shy of his 90th birthday.???“Lenny”, as he was known by his friends, was a longtime professor at UW Milwaukee, and had the innate ability to connect with people around him and get them excited about learning.???

We have had the pleasure to stay in-touch these many years and enjoy somewhat regular lunches at Benji’s Restaurant in Shorewood before covid shut the world down, and had the pleasure of knowing Len’s wife Marilyn before her passing, who was a pioneer in information retrieval, and son David, who is an accomplished engineer and science fiction writer.

Lenny’s career took him through many different ground-breaking technologies, and his early work in the US space program and on gyroscopes made him a true rocket scientist.??Len was an expert at vacuums (referring to the vacuum found in space, not the Hoover kind), and said that he was an expert in a niche where he ‘knew everything about nothing.’?Len never had a shortage of words about a particular challenge, and, his ability to tell stories and give people a 360 degree view of the problem before delving into a solution made him an excellent teacher.

Lenny was a beloved professor at UWM, until his retirement around 2000, and many students will fondly remember his CS101 class whether they went on to a career in computer science and technology or not.??His passion and enthusiasm for what he taught made it impossible for someone to ignore the new technology world that was upon us.

He carried his teaching skills into his retirement career, and ran a group at the Shorewood Community Center called “Things that go beep,” where he would teach seniors and other people desiring to learn more about technology the practical uses of all sorts of technologies, including smartphones and computers.

In the early 1990’s, prior to his retirement, he often acted as a resource for information on computer security and particularly computer viruses.???He was interviewed on a number of occasions by Milwaukee television stations when an expert was needed on the subject.

I met Lenny for the first time at a small computer consulting company that he was a partner in in Shorewood.??Being hired as an intern at 17-years-old, going on to my senior year at Shorewood High School, my four study halls in the afternoons of school afforded me the opportunity to work in a professional setting with Lenny as well as some other very bright people.?I learned the ins-and-outs of MS-DOS, Fastback for backups (anyone remember the disk-munching software?), CP/M, MP/M, cable wiring, a 40-pound-Kaypro, computer construction and repair, early Zenith laptops, dBase II/III+ programming, and many other things.??

Through his professional mentoring and teaching, I was able to carry my development skills that I had began at age 12 in 1981 into a professional setting, which served as a launching point for many of the cool things that I’ve been blessed to work on and businesses to start.

I like to think that the creativity, ingenuity, passion, and atmosphere of family that we learned from Lenny can be imparted to the people we work with and world around us and form our companies’ core values.??My intention is that these values are always reflected by our two businesses, software development company, Lanex, LLC, and our startup, Field to Freezer, to our team members, customers, and the world around us.

Undoubtedly, if people looked at technology as Lenny did as a means to create, innovate, learn, and inspire, rather than one to distort, destroy, and control, the world would be a better place.??

I'm sure there are many of Lenny’s family, friends, and students that have similar stories to share on how he helped launch them on their career paths and inspire them.??It would sure be fun to hear some of those stories.??Did you know Lenny?

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lenny’s son David, family, and many friends.???We were blessed to have known him.

(photo courtesy of David Levine)