Paul Dirksen, a pioneer computer scientist at the University of Waterloo, passed away on April 8, 2023. He was 83.
Paul was born on November 16, 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to German Mennonite immigrants, and grew up in Waterloo. He was one of the first students at the University of Waterloo, graduating with a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics in 1963 and an M.Sc. in Computer Science in 1964. Paul’s professors and mentors Ralph Stanton and Wes Graham encouraged him to pursue a career teaching computer science at Waterloo, leading to a decades-long career.
