[Photo is at Miyajima, Hiroshima, on Dave's 90th birthday trip: Keiko Okawa, Yukie Shibuya, Yasuo "tsucchy" Tsuchimoto, Kaori Suzuki, Rod Van Meter, Dave Farber, Jun Murai, Catharina Maracke]
My comments from Dave Farber's funeral on February 13, 2026:
David Jack Farber.
Born April 17, 1934.
Passed away February 7, 2026.
Occupation: professor.
Those are the basic facts you will see on a census form.
Worked on telephone switching systems, built distributed systems, helped kick off important precursors to today’s Internet, served as chief technologist at the FCC, taught at five universities – those are the things you’ll read in the obituaries in the newspapers, and we heard about them yesterday from Manny, Jun, and Jiro. We heard from Manny about family, and Dan about Dave’s love of food and of Japan. (For those of you who didn’t join us last night, we hope to make the video available later.) And in a few minutes we will hear from Vint Cerf, whose career Dave helped shape.
Dave literally changed the life direction of several Keio students that I know of, and doubtless affected many more in ways I’ll never get to hear about. As a Keio faculty member, I’m deeply grateful for that. After Vint, we will hear from Taro, who is one of those whose life was changed.
So what more is there to say?
If I had to describe Dave, I would pick the 3 Cs: connection, clarity, and curiosity. Yesterday we talked about all three of these. Dave's ability to connect people might be the true core of his career – it’s the thing that brought us all here today. Dave was exceptionally clear in his explanation of things – and also saw clearly. Dave’s curiosity was endless; personally, it’s the thing I admired most about him, and he and I had long conversations about wide ranging topics (yes, including quantum computing), and it might be the core of his longevity.
A few days ago, while helping Manny clean up the apartment, we found a number of articles that Dave had printed out for later reading. I found a couple of things I had written on Dave’s desk – my blog entry on web3, and my class and research group policy on the use of AI. That's certainly an example of his curiosity.
Dave was not a particularly religious person, though he was proud of his Jewish heritage. G.G. was raised Greek Orthodox. I was raised American Baptist. One place where all of these things overlap is in the Book of Ecclesiastes (which, by the way, takes its English Christian name from the Greek). Ecclesiastes is known as Kohelet (which I’m sure I’m not pronouncing right) in Hebrew.
So, with your permission, I’d like to read a little from the King James Version of Ecclesiastes. It will be a familiar passage, and it’s one that’s often used in Christian funerals, at least in America, but it should resonate with everyone regardless of religion, I hope.
3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Dave knew all of these things. Dave did most of them rather frequently. We have done about half of these things just in this last week, talking about Dave and preparing for today.
Dave was much more than a colleague and mentor. Dave was my friend, and I will miss him.
My condolences again to Manny, Mei, Carol, Nate and Sam. Thank you for sharing Dave with the rest of us. May his memory be a blessing.
Go in peace, Dave. G.G. and Joe are waiting for you.
