The Passing of My Mentor

On Thursday, December 3rd of 2015, a great man—and a man of faith—passed from our world to the next. Professor Edward Daub, my mentor and youngest son's namesake, passed away at the age of 91.

I first met Professor Daub when I was an undergraduate student at UW-Madison, having enrolled in his Technical Japanese 1 class in Fall of 1986. We used the Comprehending Technical Japanese (aka CTJ) textbook for that class, and for the subsequent Technical Japanese 2 class the following semester. Shortly after those classes ended, Professor Daub asked whether I would be interested in working for him, to assist him and Professors Inoue (RIP) and Bird on their Basic Technical Japanese (aka BTJ) book project. Professor Daub observed that I was able to noticed subtle differences in the forms of kanji (Japanese ideographs), and I suspect that he felt that such a skill was useful for this project. The book was published in 1990. I convinced Professors Daub and Bird, along with UW Press, that I could typeset the book using the Japanese version of Aldus PageMaker, but that we needed to acquire an Apple LaserWriter II NTX-J in order to print the camera-ready copy for publishing. We did so, and ended up using Morisawa's Ryumin and Gothic BBB typefaces for the layout. BTJ was the very first book that I typeset.

My work with Professor Daub contributed very much to the funding of my graduate studies at UW-Madison, which happened to be in a completely different field (Adobe, and I have been there ever since. When I returned to UW-Madison in May of 1994 to receive my PhD degree, I asked Professor Daub to accompany me when I accepted the degree. Given the extent of his influence in my life and career, this was very appropriate. It was a great honor. I stayed in touch with Professor Daub over the years, and made a point of visiting him whenever my travels brought me back to Wisconsin, where I was born. My father was the first to learn the news of his passing, which he conveyed to me on the day of his passing. I am very grateful about that.

Professor Daub's funeral will take place in Madison, Wisconsin on the afternoon of Saturday, January 16th of 2016, and I plan to be there, along with my son, Edward, who happens to live and work in the same city.

RIP my friend, my mentor, and my son's namesake. You will be missed, and I look forward to meeting you again on the other side.

Please join me in raising a glass in his memory and honor. 