We are sending you a heartfelt letter to inform you that Merrell Lee Patrick, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, passed away on August 8, 2022 at the age of 89. Half a century ago.

Merrell arrived at Duke University in 1964 as an assistant professor of mathematics and director of the Center for Computation.

He was a part-time student at Stanford University, where George Forsythe started the computer science department, and had a Ph.D. A student at Carnegie Mellon University, where Alan Perlis was Dean of Computer Science, Merrell was well aware that Duke needed to move towards establishing his computer science department.

Merrell, in collaboration with Tom Gurry and other colleagues at Duke University, North Carolina, and North Carolina, in 1965, with support from the National Science Foundation, created the first multi-university study based on remote computing. Founded the Triangle University Computing Center, a regional computer center.

The group’s activism and advocacy eventually led to the establishment of the Computer Science Department at Duke University in 1972. Merrell was also instrumental in recruiting Don Loveland from Carnegie’s Mellon University as the department’s new chairman. The rest, as they say, is history.

Merrell continued to contribute to the department in many ways, from research and teaching to serving as director of graduate studies, interim chair, and principal advisor to the department. and has always been a strong advocate for the department. He was also an avid Duke and his basketball fan. Merrell retired in 1996. Many of us didn’t overlap with the Duke of Computers in his time in science, but we live in his legacy today.

You can read more about Merrell in his obituary. He has a wife, daughter, son, sister, three sons-in-law, two granddaughters and two granddaughters. Our thoughts are with his family.