PAMELA ANN MCCORDUCK
OCTOBER 27, 1940 – OCTOBER 18, 2021
New York, Santa Fe and Walnut Creek
Artificial Intelligence champion, prolific writer and published author, philanthropist, loving sister and aunt
Born in Liverpool, England during the height of the German bombing raids, Pamela emigrated permanently to the United States with her parents and younger twin siblings on the original Queen Elizabeth ocean liner, which arrived on Ellis Island, New York, on December 12, 1946. The family lived in New Jersey with close relatives until they moved to the Bay Area in 1949. In the late 1950s she lived with her family for a short time in Rutherford, New Jersey, where she graduated from Rutherford High School at the age of 15 before returning to the Bay Area, where she attended the University of California Berkeley in 1960 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Composition and Literature. A few years later she did her Masters in English Lit at Columbia University in New York, where she also became Professor of Creative Writing. In 2020, Pamela became a donor and board member of the University of California Library.
In 1963 Pamela worked at the School of Business Administration at CAL, where she received Dr. Ed Feigenbuam, who was teaching at the faculty at the time. Before even hearing the phrase “Artificial Intelligence”, Pamela helped publish the very first book on AI. In 1965, Dr. Feigenbaum CAL to become one of the founders of the newly formed computer science division at Stanford. At that time, he asked Pamela to join the team at Stanford, where her productive writing skills were already in full bloom. At Stanford, Pamela met her future husband, Dr. Joseph Traub, who later became director of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and founding chairman of computer science at Columbia University in New York. During her stay in Pittsburgh, Pamela was a professor of English literature at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to New York.
Pamela is the author or co-author of eleven published books, including three novels. Her novel The Edge of Chaos was shortlisted for Best Fiction at the 2008 New Mexico Book Awards. Its sequel, her tenth published book titled Bounded Rationality, was published in the fall of 2012, the second in a planned trilogy called Santa Fe Stories. From working on volume three, she took the time to write her memoir entitled This Could Be Important: My Life and Times with the Artificial Intelligentsia, which was published in late 2019.
Her book Machines Who Think, A History of Artificial Intelligence, published in 1979, was honored by the New York Public Library in the year of its publication and reissued in 2004 in a 25-year anniversary edition along with a new foreword and a long afterword that telling the story her other books include The Universal Machine, Aaron’s Code, The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan’s Computer Challenge to the World (with Ed Feigenbaum), and The Futures of Women (with Nancy Ramsey) . She has advised numerous companies in the transport, finance and high-tech sectors and constructed future scenarios.
As a board member and then vice president of the PEN American Center in New York City, Pamela founded and led an innovative program that sends authors and their books to newly educated adults in locations across the country. She also chaired a committee to study the long-term future of the PEN, which resulted in the first major reorganization of the PEN since its inception in 1922.
In 2002 Pamela and her husband bought a second home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they lived 6 months and 6 months in New York City each year. Pamela became a board member and treasurer of the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts while continuing her membership in her beloved Century Association in New York, where she met with like-minded people at the piano to sing songs from the American-style songbook and hosted a reading group on the works of Henry James, an early member of the club.
According to Martial Hebert, current dean of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, “Pamela was an early and hugely influential chronicler of artificial intelligence at CMU and elsewhere, and her writing – including face-to-face conversations with many of the giants in the field – helped that as we see, in her words, thinking machines. “In 2018, Pamela donated more than 50 mechanical calculators, encryption devices, and early computers to the CMU from the collection she and her husband had put together. This precious collection includes a pair of Enigma machines that were used by the German army to keep secrets during World War II.
In 2017, after her husband’s death, she left New York City and Santa Fe and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to be around her sister and brother, where she continued to write and enjoy the arts and culture performing arts. Pamela was known by her family and friends for having a tremendous sense of humor by entertaining them with humorous stories that left everyone in the lurch. “Friday Night Pizza” was a staple of her two siblings and spouses and was always filled with their curious minds and trivia. She loved her nieces and nephews and was happy to hear of her growing up.
Pamela was born to her parents Hilda and William “Jack” McCorduck and her loving and devoted husband, Dr. Joseph F. Traub has already passed away. She leaves behind her sister Sandra McCorduck Marona (Lee) and brother John McCorduck (Kathy), her nieces and nephews Jordan, Spencer and Alexis Marona, Kelly Hinkle (Scott), Brittany Fullerton (Nick), Brian McCorduck (Emily) and Blaire Morse Drew (Brandon) and her stepdaughters Hillary Spector (Avi) and Claudia Traub.
According to Nancy Ramsey, “Pamela’s public face was grace, intelligence, and wit. Her deep respect for the dignity and rights of every human being inspired her to write about technology and artificial intelligence. She saw them as tools to help achieve these goals in the future. “
At Pamela’s request, no official funeral or memorial service will be held in her honor. A close family and friends celebration of their lives will take place in the future. Donations can be made to the Hospice of the East Bay, 3470 Buskirk Ave, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, or to your local Planned Parenthood.
Published by Santa Fe New Mexican October 27 through October 31, 2021.
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