10 Things You Didn’t Know About W. Richard Stevens
Richard Stevens was born in 1951 in Luanshya, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)
He was a Northern Rhodesia-born American author of computer science books, in particular books on UNIX and TCP/IP
His father worked for the copper industry
The family later moved to Salt Lake City, Hurley, New Mexico, Washington, D.C. and Phalaborwa, South Africa
Stevens attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia
He received a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1973 and both a master’s degree (in 1978) and PhD (in 1982) in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona
He moved to Tucson in 1975 where he was employed at Kitt Peak National Observatory as a computer programmer until 1982
From 1982 until 1990 he was Vice President of Computing Services at Health Systems International in New Haven, Connecticut
in 1990 where he pursued his career as an author and consultant. He was also an avid pilot and a part-time flight instructor during the 1970s
Stevens died in 1999, at the age of 48. In 2000, he was posthumously awarded the Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award