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Goodbye Party

MICHAEL BLAINE BURKS SCHOLARSHIP FUND The Michael Blaine Burks Scholarship Fund is established to benefit students in the Computer Science Undergraduate Program at Carnegie Mellon University who are "underachievers with promise". Checks should be made payable to "Carnegie Mellon University" with "Burks Scholarship Fund" indicated on the memo line, and mailed to: Director of Development and Alumni Relations School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891 Those interested in making a gift via credit card or by appreciated securities should contact Tina Carr (carr@cs.cmu.edu) directly. More about the Burks Scholarship Fund. MICHAEL BLAINE BURKS Blaine Burks was born in Texas City, Texas, on July 27, 1971. Three weeks later we moved to Pittsburgh, PA, and this became Blaine's adopted home. The same year Blaine entered the first grade, his mother, Sharon, joined the staff in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon, and Blaine found his calling. From the first time he played "adventure", he knew that computer science was what he wanted to do. He became the "CS urchin", hanging around the main office, helping to pack tech reports and doing anything else he could find -- just to have the opportunity to sit at the "Silent 700" and play games for a while. Blaine spent most of his life in Bethel Park, PA. He attended the Logan Elementary School, Neil Armstrong Middle School, and graduated from Bethel Park High School in 1990. He had a life-long love of baseball, starting with T-ball at age 5, and enduring through high school, where he was a member of the varsity baseball team. Blaine had a natural musical talent, and loved music of all kinds. He played the drums, trumpet, guitar, and piano. During his teens he played in a local band which won the Bethel Park High School talent contest in 1989. He also occasionally played drums with the "Algorithmics", a group from Carnegie Mellon CSD that Blaine thought were the "coolest" guys around. During high school and early college years at Carnegie Mellon Blaine was employed part-time in the Computer Science Department, working with Scott Fahlman's group. Though I'm sure Scott often wondered why he was bothering, Blaine often told me that he learned more than he ever dreamt possible from Scott, not just about computing, but about fairness and honesty and dealing with people. In 1994 Blaine graduated from Carnegie Mellon and took a position with MAYA Design Group in Pittsburgh. In his four years with MAYA Blaine matured both professionally and personally. He learned how to be an entrepreneur, and that he wanted to run his own business. So he and his college friend packed up their belongings and headed for California. To be continued ...