Last updated 3-Oct-2005
New entries marked with *
A subject of morbid but peculiar fascination. It's certainly unwholesome to relish the stories of those who are like us, and perhaps greater than us, but who come to spectacularly bad ends, yet such stories provide a certain satisfaction. As we make our way through our own careers in engineering, and deal with our own inevitable failures, there's some comfort in knowing that no matter how badly we screw up, we won't get killed for it. Unlike these guys.
So here's a list of the tragic and failed from newest to oldest. Most were brought down by their own characters, some by bad luck or malice. Biographies and pictures (when completed!) lie behind the links.
| Name | Lived | Known For | Demise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eugene Armstrong | d 2004 | GCSC civil engineer | Beheaded in Iraq |
Satyendra Dubey |
d 2003 | Indian highway project manager | Rubbed out by mafioso contractors after revealing corruption |
| Gary Howland | d 2002 | Internet cryptography | Heroin overdose |
| d 2002 | OpenPGP, Mixmaster | Fall from Lobuche mountain, Nepal | |
| Gene Kan | 1977-2002 | Gnutella portal, InfraSearch | Suicide by gunshot |
Phil Katz |
1963-2000 | PC compression utility PKzip | Suicide by alcoholism |
| * Bohumil Sole | 1934-1997 | Co-inventor of Semtex | Blew himself up with it while depressed |
| Yahya Ayyah | 1966-1996 | Palestinian bomb maker | A booby-trapped cellular phone |
| Frederick Cuny | 1944-1995 | International relief expert | Executed in Chechnya |
| Gerald Bull | 1928-1990 | Designer of Iraqi supergun | Assassinated in Belgium |
| * Mickey Thompson | 1928-1988 | Dragsters and speed records | Mob hit by vengeful business partner |
| Don Aronow | 1927-1987 | Designer of Cigarette and other high-speed boats | Murdered by drug-smuggler associate |
| Benjamin Linder | 1962-1987 | Hydroelectric projects in Nicaragua | Killed in Contra raid |
| * Dennis Barnhart | ? - 1983 | Founder of PC-clone maker Eagle Computer | Ferrari through the guard rail after a celebratory lunch on the day of his IPO |
| Peter Goldmark | 1906-1977 | 33 RPM records, 1st color TV | Car accident |
| Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake | d 1973 | Winged automobiles | A suddenly wingless automobile |
| Mitrofan Nedelin | d 1960 | Headed Soviet launches at Baikonour | Excessive devotion to schedule |
| Edwin Armstrong | 1890-1954 | Invented most of radio | Bankruptcy, suicide |
| Alan Turing | 1912-1954 | Undecidability, Enigma code-breaking, early computers | Suicide by cyanide after medical treatment for homosexuality |
| John Whiteside Parsons | 1914-1952 | Early work on rocket fuels, Satanist follower of Aleister Crowley | Killed in mysterious explosion in his house |
| James B. Lansing | 1904-1949 | Early work on loudspeakers (JBL/Altec) | Suicide while depressed, aggravated by losing company |
| Thomas Midgley | 1889-1944 | Leaded gasoline, CFCs | Paralyzed by polio, then strangled by a harness while getting out of bed |
| Walter Thiel | ?-1941 | Designed the V-2 rocket engine | Direct hit on his Peenemunde bomb shelter |
| Wallace Carothers | 1896-1937 | Inventor of nylon | Depression, suicide |
| Alberto Santos-Dumont | 1873-1932 | First European powered flight | Suicide over military use of aircraft |
| Peter Palchinsky | 1875-1929 | Leading Russian mining engineer | Executed by Stalin |
| Clara Haber | 1870-1915 | Contributor to Haber-Bosch nitrogen fixation | Suicide when her husband invented poison gas |
| Rudolf Diesel | 1858-1913 | The eponymous engine | Suicide after loss of control over technology |
| Thomas Andrews | 1873-1912 | Designer of the Titanic | Drowned after collision with iceberg |
| Charles O'Connor | 1843-1902 | Western Australia water supply | Suicide after constant criticism |
| Otto Lilienthal | 1848-1896 | Early man-carrying gliders | Crashed in thermal |
| Horace L Hunley | d 1863 | Financier of the Confederate submarine, HL Hunley | Drowned during sea trials in Charleston SC |
| Horace Wells | 1815-1848 | First use of nitrous oxide as pain reliever | Disbelief, chloroform addiction, suicide |
| * Archimedes | ~287-212 BCE | Volume of the sphere, principles of buoyancy and leverage | Dissed a Roman soldier |
| And let me mention one other figure, a particularly important one in my field. He wasn't doomed, and in fact had a spectacular career, but he did come to an untimely end: | |||
| Seymour Cray | 1925-1996 | Leading supercomputer designer | Killed in an SUV rollover |
Comments? Additions? Mail to: jlr@world.std.com
(c) John Redford
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