DON'T CRY BECAUSE IT IS OVER; SMILE BECAUSE IT HAPPENED.
We celebrate the life of Judson Douglas Knott, who lost his battle with heart disease on July 4, 2020. Judd was a headstrong and pragmatic leader who always had a smile for his grandchildren. He loved all kinds of music, from The Kinks to The Mavericks to Pink Martini to Neil Young and could often be found listening to music while working in the yard or cooling off in the pool.
Judd was born in 1952 in Upland, PA and grew up in and around Philadelphia. He enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school, proudly serving for 8.5 years, reaching the rank of DS1 (data systems technician).
After serving in the Navy, he earned his bachelors degree in Computer Science, summa cum laude, from Old Dominion University then worked at NASA Langley building and programming a 36-node parallel computer (the Finite Element Machine) for modeling the first Space Shuttle mission.
In 1983, Judd went to graduate school at Duke University where he studied Computer Science and met the “Happy Hour Crew” – his longtime friends and support network.
Judd cleverly managed to hide his loyalty to Duke basketball while working at UNC-Chapel Hill for 25 years. He held a variety of positions at UNC, including Assistant Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Operations and Information Security Manager. A natural “futurist”, one of Judd’s proudest professional achievements was the development of SunSITE (AKA MetaLab or ibiblio) in 1992, one of the first web sites on the internet, with his partner and friend, Paul Jones.
Judd retired in 2014 to renovate his 1899 farmhouse and spend more time with his beloved German Shepard, Heidi.
Judd is survived by Jo, his wife of 46 years; his four children: Travis, Cary, Rachael and Evan; his nine grandchildren: Lucy, Claire, Raya, Parker, Harrison, Nathan, Franklin, Molly and Helen; and Heidi.
The ultimate tinkerer and collector, Judd leaves behind many “in progress” projects, a garage full of yard tools, and shelves and shelves of weird little animal planters.
He will be dearly missed.