SIGGRAPH Pioneers

There’s a group within SIGGRAPH called the Pioneers. They’re people who’ve been part of the SIGGRAPHH community for more than 20 years. I’ve been a member for a couple of years now because they’re doing some great work collecting old artifacts from our history and making sure it gets preserved.

This year, for the first time, I went to their annual reception. It was really great. I had a chance to talk to some great people I hadn’t seen in years, and everyone was so friendly. It reminded me of why I first wanted to join the computer graphics community almost 30 years ago. I’m very glad John Peddie contacted me, and glad that he worked so hard putting this event together.

Turner Whitted gave a great talk about his early days in computer graphics in the 70’s and how nice everyone was to him. And he reminded us that we all need to treat the next generation that well and act as mentors to them.