IV · Data & databases
Jim Gray
1944–2007
Microsoft Research · ex-Tandem · 1998 Turing laureate
Gave us
Transactions, granularity of locks, ACID. The idea that databases should be measurable (TPC benchmarks).
The story
Lost at sea in 2007, single-handed sailing trip from San Francisco. The CS community ran a search-and-rescue operation using satellite imagery and crowd-sourced volunteers; he was never found. The 2009 book "The Fourth Paradigm" was assembled in his memory.