I was Gary's MSc Student in 2003-2005. Studying at UCT with him as my supervisor was a very stimulating and fulfilling time for me. Gary was the most passionate educator I have had the privilege of working with. Professionally he was excited about HCI and other fields of computer science and a clear leader in this area - you can't help but learn from him. He was a wonderful mentor and had a gift of drawing out the best in me. He was also so much fun and his students loved his company. He knew of my love for chocolate and chocolate drinks and would take me to the best place for hot chocolate so that I would be happy to discuss my project! After I finished my degree at UCT we occasionally kept in contact. He never failed to reply to an email here or there despite how hectically busy he was. I used so much of what he taught me in my teaching career. He was a true inspiration. Because of my fondness of Gary and of how much I grew professionally from his direction, I would always recommend my IT students to go to UCT and do Comp Sci after they finished school! Gary was a legend and he will be deeply missed.
Charlene Elliott (previously Beirowski)
No comments:
Post a Comment