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Mr Chancellor, I have the Honour to present to you a Computer expert and Systems engineer of world renown, a man who has done pioneering work in establishing the Internet in Africa, an influential leader in the world of Information Technology, Mister Randall J Bush, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
Randy, as he prefers to be known, was born in 1944. After an unremarkable school career, he tried his hand briefly at being a student at the University of Chicago during the sixties, but soon realised academia was not for him, and embarked on a career in computer technology, starting on the ground floor, so to speak, and rising rapidly to dizzying heights. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we need to realise that Randy Bush lives in the internet age, and this is difficult for some of us here in Africa to understand. Here, in the South African bush, many of us are under the impression that a screen is there to keep the mosquitoes out, a 'byte' is what the mossies do to you if they get in, and a megabyte is what the mozzies in Gauteng do. I must therefore warn you that as I take you through the career of this computing giant, I am going to be forced to use some rather frightening technical words. So when you hear me say things like PDP-8 or UCSD, please relax; there will be no need to understand these abbreviations - you simply need to look as if you do, nod wisely, and be enormously impressed at the achievements of this extraordinary man.
Beginning as a lab technician at the University of Chicago, Randy Bush was rapidly promoted to Junior Programmer in 1965, and spent 4 years designing and programming a number of medical applications using the 1401, PDP-8 and the 7040, which are all serial names for computers before we got PCs. In 1969, he advanced to the level of systems programmer for a large Californian company and was responsible for configuration measurement analysis and planning, online database design and troubleshooting for their large multi-computer system network. As far as I can see, at that stage he was already a bit like God in the computer world: the man you go to when the manual does not work. There he also managed the very first installation and integration of IBM-compatible memory and disk drives, and was responsible for debugging them.
Ever in search of new challenges, 2 years later Bush moved on to become principal of a small consulting company in Oregon, where he negotiated, managed, and participated in many service contracts and did the trouble shooting for the first two IBM-compatible add-on manufacturers. In 1977, he moved to Northwest Microcomputer Systems and helped to develop a desktop microcomputer, transporting the famous Pascal computer language to the first small micro-computers. In other words those gargantuan humming machines that used to take up the whole ground floor of the Rhodes Computer dept were now replaced by nifty little boxes. Truly amazing! This was done by writing what were called "interpreters", which could pretend they were big computers and achieve the same affect, a little more slowly.
Only a year later, our computer whizzkid moved to California, to Volition Systems, of his own free will nogal, and for the next 5 years he co-developed a p-code compiler and Pascal-like operating system and interpreters for the Z80 and 8080 range of microcomputers. This operating system was a landmark product and really helped get microcomputing into academia. He also achieved other computing miracles, like setting up a floating point library, with which I am sure you are all deeply familiar (for those who really need to know, apparently it is a technical term in computer arithmetic for numbers that can have fractions).
All this talk about computers sounds very impressive, I'm sure you agree, but before we all begin feeling totally inadequate as mere humans, we need to remember that computers are really only fast idiots, with no imagination or creativity. In fact, I can assure you all that they cannot replace humans because humans make up committees and committees buy computers. Computers are only a tool for humans, and it takes special people like the Randy Bushes of this world to let them know who is the Boss. Anyway, this computer boss was getting bored again, and so in 1986 it was back to Oregon, this time to Portland, as Engineering Director of a technical team. There, while acting as full time manager, he produced 5 to 10,000 lines of code a year - apparently an amazing feat - and a few more of those floating libraries for good measure.
In addition, in his spare time, he founded the West Coast regional TCP network and set himself up as its Principal Network Engineer. He now runs a small private consultancy, doing work for diverse commercial users such as National Science Foundation, the World Bank and United Nations. He also developed prototype high-speed communications applications and designed and developed a small real-time kernel single-chip micro-controller for telephones. There is obviously more to chips than the 'slap' variety from the corner cafe; gone are the days when a microchip was what you got at the bottom of the chip packet, and software was the plastic knives and forks they gave you to eat your chips with at the Wimpy.
According to Max Frisch "technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we need not experience it", and we have become a people unable to comprehend the technology we have created. It is indeed comforting to know that as we speed down the fast track of the 21st century, people like Randy Bush, who understands things like networking, compilers and operating systems, can guide those of us who don't know what on earth they are. Right now, he is also Vice President of Network Engineering for an international ISP, doing all the engineering, while also participating in the company's design and business strategy. And there is more to come. In fact I am just getting to the good bits, and I have no intention of hiding his true light under a bush. I mean bushel. The fact is, Randy Bush is a man with a strong social conscience (indeed, he talks proudly of having been arrested as a student in the days of the American Civil Rights demonstrations of the 60s). He is passionately concerned with the rights of the individual, especially the right to free access to information.
By the late 80s computer technology had finally become cheap enough to enable poorer nations to afford the hardware needed to join the world's networks, and he was inspired with a new realisation that, for very little money, these networks could stretch across the globe to developing nations. Now of course, we need to remember that in many parts of Africa there are people who think that to log on is to make the fire hotter, the monitor keeps an eye on the fire, to download is to get more wood off the bakkie, and a 'floppy disk' is what you get from carrying too much firewood. Some of us in Africa have a long way to go!
Undeterred, this unassuming man standing before us today quietly began his mammoth task aimed at linking developing countries to the internet, working, dare I say it, in the "bush", like a sort of latter-day missionary, doing everything possible to help those who were eager to communicate with each other Although I have heard it said that the e-mail of the species is deadlier than the mail, e-mail has many advantages, and it was Randy Bush who made e-mail a reality for the people of Africa. How did he manage this? The 1980s were a time when apartheid South Africa, which was highly technologically developed in comparison with the rest of Africa, was the outcast of the world. Nevertheless, Bush felt that equity of information could only benefit the people, and might even bring about political and social change, so, after discussing the situation with various computer specialists at Rhodes, and at considerable risk to his own career, he offered to pass academic e-mail and news feeds from South Africa, via Rhodes University, which was the sole e-mail gateway at the time, to the rest of the world. Being allowed to connect to his systems was one thing; discovering how to and to use it in a cost effective way was quite another. During four tumultuous years from 1988 to 1991 Randy Bush gave Rhodes and South Africa an incredible amount of his time and expertise.
Motivated by the well-known proverb "give a man a fish and you will feed him for the day; teach him to use the net and he wont bother you for weeks", Randy Bush did not believe in the sink or swim approach. He focussed on thorough training and backup support, so that local engineers really understood the equipment and could master the technology themselves. And what is even more impressive is that he refused to be paid for the work. At a time when computer engineers could command impressive salaries, our expert here rolled up his sleeves, connected wires and configured the routers and servers, for nothing but the costs of connection from the computers at his home to the Internet.
He gave unstintingly of his expertise and time, responding to calls for help on an almost daily basis, in a determined and selfless effort to get people and nations connected. And the network spread far beyond our borders, through many emerging countries right across the alphabet and the globe, from Angola, Cambodia and Cuba, to Peru, Togo and Uganda. Indeed, Bush championed their cause with such enthusiasm and ability that within a short time his private study at home became a centre through which much e-mail to and from the rest of the developing world passed - largely at his own expense - into the United States. In the process Randy Bush achieved not only a technical network, but a human one as well, forging lasting friendships with networkers in the SADC region. Through his invaluable contribution, this man also enabled the Rhodes Computer Dept to establish a fine reputation as the leader in internetworking in Africa.
Mister Chancellor, we have before us a man driven by a strong concern to promote communication and better understanding, who has quietly and selflessly given his time and energy to uplift under-developed countries. We have before us an outstanding friend of Rhodes University, whose friendship and benevolence helped us establish a reputation for networking skills that is the envy of most other universities. This man has proven his integrity, his compassion, and his excellence in his field. Future historians of the Internet throughout the world will find that the name of this remarkable man recurs time and again. It is indeed right and fitting for Rhodes University to acknowledge the contribution of this outstanding man, and it therefore gives me very great pleasure, Mr Chancellor to present to you Randall Bush, for the award of the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa
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