John Howard Sayler

4/20/37 – 4/20/12

John Howard Sayler, computer systems expert and musician, beloved by his family, friends, and colleagues, passed away Friday, April 20, his 75th birthday, following a birthday celebration with his wife Judy and son Ben. John was known by those who loved him as a man with a delightful and astonishing array of talents and life experiences which he could recount with a rare gift for storytelling backed up by a steel trap memory. To know John was to love him.

John received his B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. from The University of Michigan after attending the University of Chicago and the University of Maryland. His dissertation is entitled, “The Structure and Complexity of Software System Designs.” Before moving to Ann Arbor in 1974, he managed, and developed, space physics software systems at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA), Beltsville, Md. John often noted with a grin that he gained this position at NASA without a college degree. He wrote programs for neurophysiological research projects at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Bethesda, Maryland. Friends and family for years after were regaled with John’s stories about the many ways the research monkeys organized politically to outsmart the researchers at Walter Reed. John also took pride in having written, early in his career, the first history of computers for the Smithsonian Institution.

John dedicated the bulk of his career to the analysis of large software systems, forming Software Analytics (SA) in the early ‘80s, a consulting firm that included Microsoft among its clients. Through SA John counseled software start-up firms and advised large and small companies across the U.S. and Japan on issues related to software design, intellectual property, component architectures, and knowledge-based navigation of information structures. Prior to forming SA, John managed two software departments for an Ann Arbor based CAD/CAM corporation. A University of Michigan Adjunct Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, John taught courses on software tools & environments. computers & society, software requirements and design, and data structures. He also served as an expert witness in software claim disputes and held two patents with his long-time mentor, friend, and business partner the late Professor Bernard Galler. John co-authored numerous articles about software systems with friend and colleague William Riddle. On one occasion John summed up his passion for his work by saying, "My professional goal is to simplify the description, construction, and analyses of software systems."

Music remained a passion with John throughout his life. The son of progressive union organizers John was raised on picket lines in Detroit and Washington singing the songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. While serving his armed services tour in Germany John even found a way to form a Dixieland band. Throughout their 26 year marriage John and Judy spent countless hours playing folk and roots music in their living room and with friends, occasionally performing publicly. In recent years, John enjoyed playing the dobro and performing with Judy and their close friend singer-songwriter Jay Stielstra in the Jay Stielstra Trio. In particular, John reveled in the weekly practices with Jay and Judy and the deep friendship the three of them shared.

Another of John’s major passions was riding motorcycles. A Bultaco aficionado, John’s stories of his trophy-winning racing days raised his friends eyebrows. He loved to tell of racing through the pine woods outside of Grand Rapids or up the northern Michigan sand dunes, taking headers in deep mud puddles, or tearing up the steps of Worster Park on his bike pulling a wheelie and flying back down the steps to demonstrate his riding prowess to a doubting friend. John spent the cherished parts of his youth in Glacier National Park, working sometimes for relatives and other times for the National Park Service, digging ditches, cutting up trees, and clearing trails on the glaciers. At one time John even worked in Montana at a zinc smelter.

Above and beyond all of John’s varied accomplishments was his warmth, intelligence, keen curiosity about the world, and his hearty laugh. John never knew a stranger. The words of a dear friend echo the sentiments of all who knew John “There simply never has been anyone else like John and there never will be.” And she’s correct: with his enchanting quirks, boundless curiosity, thoughtful and indelible affection, dexterous intellect, and effulgent sense of humor, there truly never could be.

John is survived by his wife, Judith Banker, and son, Ben Sayler, of Ann Arbor; his brother Jim (and Terry) of Annapolis, Maryland; Diana (and Yoshi) Matsushima of Glendale, CA; Gloria Sayler (and Randal Samstag) of Bainbridge Island, Wa; and a large and loving extended family of in laws, cousins, step brother and sisters, and nieces and nephews. A memorial service for John is set for Thursday, May 17th,

5 p.m., at Cobblestone Farm.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to a professional education fund established in John's memory through the Academy for Eating Disorders. Donations will support the professional training and education of treatment professionals from under-served regions worldwide. The link is www.aedweb.org/source/donate/index.cfm?mode=donate§ion=donate