Our Visionary is gone, and the world will somehow be a little darker for all of us.
Bangalore World University regrets to announce the passing of perhaps of its most revered and distinguished alumni, Allen Hobby, late of New York City. He died last week in a tragic amphibicopter crash while en route to Bermuda Spires on a humanitarian mission. His death at the age of ninety-nine has touched the hearts and minds of everyone in the BWU community and indeed throughout the academic, scientific, and corporate worlds. His talents and leadership will be sorely missed, for he was an inspiration to us all.

Everyone knows about Allen Hobby's accomplishments over the last five decades. Documented in great detail by the media and academics alike, Dr. Hobby's work has set the tone for a worldwide revolution in artificial intelligence. He has been the driving force behind Cybertronics Corporation's dominance of the design, development, and creation of artificial humanity. Some call him the father of robotkind. Hobby was without doubt the leading proponent of the universal use of artificial life as a tool that would eventually free humans from the mundane restrictions and limitations of everyday life.

But, we here at BWU remember that Allen Hobby lived for almost fifty years before he became "The Visionary" at Cybertronics. He was not only one of industry's brightest stars; he was also one of academia's most brilliant lights.

Home schooled by his American mother and father-Darlene Sutherland and Thomas Allen Hobby-Dr. Hobby was the precocious child of intellectual missionaries. Born in Edinburgh, he grew up in Maine and accompanied his parents on long, frequent missions.

His first formal education started when he enrolled at the Bangalore World University in Edinburgh. Only thirteen years old at the time, Hobby was the youngest student ever to bypass the undergraduate curriculum and enter directly into one of BWU's Masters programs. Finishing his Masters in Computer Science in less than a year, Hobby was one of the first students to study for his PhD in the newly formed Artificial Intelligence program at BWU's New York campus. Hobby was only seventeen when he finished his thesis, "Simulating Emotions and Motivation in Artificial Intelligence Systems." This groundbreaking research earned him not only his PhD, but also one of BWU's renowned post-graduate fellowships. Fully funded for four years, Hobby began producing some of his most brilliant work, laying the basic foundations necessary for many of his later breakthroughs in the field of Evolving Intelligence.

Inevitable but regrettable, this is where BWU and Allen Hobby formally parted ways. (He always remained an informal part of the BWU family.) In 2064, Dr. Hobby accepted a tenure-track position at Dartmouth University. After six years in New Hampshire, he moved on to AIT-Zaragoza, where he remained a fixture for two decades. He joined the private sector in 2090, taking over Cybertronics Corporation's Research Department in New Jersey and (at High Water) building the first major post-flood laboratory in nearby Manhattan.

During the twenty-five years that Hobby spent as a full professor, he completed the theoretical work that later allowed him to turn his dream of sentient beings into reality. But Allen Hobby was not just a genius and a brilliant researcher; he will also be remembered as an exceptional teacher. So many great scientists can do but cannot teach. Not so with Dr. Hobby. Following his groundbreaking original work, Hobby turned his genius from research to other areas, increasingly devoting himself to promoting the field as a mentor and entrepreneur. Selflessly promoting the research of his protégés above his own, Hobby taught and inspired an entire generation of superb researchers, designers, and educators, including Elizabeth Jane Sutter, Jeanine Salla, Terrance Coplan, Katya Rukowski, Hara Gorwa, and many more. As a case in point, no less than fourteen university presidents-including BWU's own Chancellor, Darius Rham Putra, and AIT's Chancellor, Dolors Villa-Gaudi-studied under Allen Hobby.

It has been almost forty-five years since Hobby lost his only son, David, who died at the age of seventeen after a troubled adolescence. The tragedy marked the beginning of a very creative three-year period for Dr. Hobby, who subsequently developed a pioneering series of emotionally enabled AIs. Unfortunately, early in 2099, fate claimed his beloved wife, Carol, in a tragic household gas explosion that nearly cost Allen Hobby his own life. While he recovered, he never remarried.

We grieve for Allen Hobby, but we do not despair. Instead we celebrate his life and his career, realizing that he lives on in our hearts as well as in his creations.

This brief statement only summarizes Allen Hobby's brilliant career. In a few weeks, the BWU Times will be putting out a special issue devoted to the life and accomplishments of Allen Hobby.
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