In memoriam - Vladimir Vassilevsky

Hi,
 In the Russian culture it's traditional to formally 
remember a deceased family member, or friend, 40 days 
after the day of their passing.  Today it's been 40 
days since Vladimir Vassilevsky left this world.

My memory of Vlad, as his friends called him, is that 
he was a highly skilled engineer.  Over the years of 
exchanging signal processing ideas with Vlad I had the 
distinct impression that he knew more about signal 
processing than I did.  That made our relationship 
beneficial to me.  One thing was clear, he had far more 
practical signal processing implementation experience 
than I had. 

Vladimir had the original idea to have the 2010 Comp.dsp 
Conference in Kansas city.  I helped him organize the 
conference but he and his wife Lena, by far, did the bulk 
of the work to make the conference a success.  (Vladimir 
was NOT a lazy guy.)  In addition to that Vlad and Lena 
graciously welcomed the conference attendees into their 
home for dinner the night before the conference started.

In the evening of the first day of the conference Vlad 
arranged for the attendees to have dinner together in a 
private back room of a local Chinese restaurant.  Vlad 
knew that the restaurant did not have a license to sell 
beer, but he did not let that stop him.  Five minutes after 
we all sat down in our private room three 12-packs of 
Heineken beer were magically delivered to us through 
the back door of the restaurant. Ha ha. I could see 
that Vlad certainly was a "problem solving" kinda guy.

Vladimir also had the good sense of humor--he told me 
one of my favorite adult jokes.  Unless someone asks me, 
I won't repeat the joke here for fear of offending 
sensitive feminine ears.

I'll miss Vladimir.

   "I remember those happy days and often wish I could
    speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which 
    was due to them in life and so ill-returned."
                                        --Gwyn Thomas

[-Rick-]

I pondered what to say about Vladimir. I think that something I already
said about him in a post long ago is most appropriate: I don't think
that I have ever seen an answer from him that was wrong.

I never met him in person, but still I miss him.

Peace to you and yours, Vladimir.

Greg Berchin

On Sat, 25 Jul 2015 02:41:28 -0700, Rick Lyons
<R.Lyons@_BOGUS_ieee.org> wrote:

>
>Hi,
> In the Russian culture it's traditional to formally 
>remember a deceased family member, or friend, 40 days 
>after the day of their passing.  Today it's been 40 
>days since Vladimir Vassilevsky left this world.


Jerry Avins wrote the following in response to a note from Vlad's wife
and asked that I forward it here:

Lena,

I knew Vladimir almost entirely as an internet correspondent, but that
was more than enough to impress me with his broad knowledge and
ability to innovate. His good nature -- and yours -- became very clear
when Shen and I were guests in your home for a few days. His death
leaves a void for many of us.

I haven't been active on usenet lately, Perhaps Eric will "forward" my
remarks. 

______________

I'm just heading out the door and will write something when I get
back.

Cheers,

Eric
Eric Jacobsen
Anchor Hill Communications
http://www.anchorhill.com

On Sat, 25 Jul 2015 02:41:28 -0700, Rick Lyons
<R.Lyons@_BOGUS_ieee.org> wrote:

>
>Hi,
> In the Russian culture it's traditional to formally 
>remember a deceased family member, or friend, 40 days 
>after the day of their passing.  Today it's been 40 
>days since Vladimir Vassilevsky left this world.

First, I have to say that Vlad's passing has affected me more than I
would have ever guessed.  Gone way too soon, and he left behind an
impressive family.   If you judge a man by his family, Vladimir did a
fine job.    He and his wife were excellent hosts at the Kansas City
conference, and made us feel welcome and at home.   They really did
make us feel like family. 

As others have said and is pretty well known here, his technical
skills were very impressive.  One thing that came through on comp.dsp
was that he was a very confident engineer, and that enabled him to do
some really impressive things.   I'm still in awe of some of the
projects he pulled off as a consultant.   Some were the kind of thing
that you'd expect a big team at a well-equipped company to take a few
years to do, and he did it almost single-handedly from his house.  You
really can't argue with results like that.

I like unique people and he was definitely that.  I will miss him a
lot.   I wish he wasn't gone.


Eric Jacobsen
Anchor Hill Communications
http://www.anchorhill.com

Greg Berchin <gjberchin@chatter.net.invalid> wrote:
> I pondered what to say about Vladimir. I think that something I already
> said about him in a post long ago is most appropriate: I don't think
> that I have ever seen an answer from him that was wrong.

I didn't try counting, but I did always read his posts more
carefully than others, figuring I would likely learn something.
 
> I never met him in person, but still I miss him.

I never did, either, but yes, I miss him, too.
 
> Peace to you and yours, Vladimir.

Peace.

-- glen

Rick Lyons <R.Lyons@_BOGUS_ieee.org> writes:

> Hi,
>  In the Russian culture it's traditional to formally 
> remember a deceased family member, or friend, 40 days 
> after the day of their passing.  Today it's been 40 
> days since Vladimir Vassilevsky left this world.
> [...]

Dear comp.dsp friends, 

I regret that I missed the 2010 comp.dsp conference. However, now that
Vlad is gone, I regret it much more.

I have heard from several people how they learned at the conference that
Vlad and Lena were very cordial and caring people. I wish I had taken
the chance to get to know them, to have a beer, to talk politics, to
talk DSP, to become "comrades." My loss.

Here on the group, Vlad frequently made very sharp remarks. He was very
often right. I can't think of an instance when he wasn't right. As
several others have already stated, his expertise in DSP was beyond
question.

Thank you, Vlad, for teaching me, about DSP, about life, about how
important time is, and about how important it is to clear the junk
from my mind. I will miss you.
-- 
Randy Yates
Digital Signal Labs
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

Like many others, my meeting Vlad personally was only for a short time back in 2010. However, he came across as incredibly personable. He and his wife, Lena, were wonderful hosts, and they had seen to every detail. Vlad told me directly he was very happy about people coming to his event as he wanted people to discuss technical things with. We all know you can't go down to the local market and find a DSP person to discuss an idea with.  His projects were extremely involved and he spoke about two of them in the conference. He had a lot of pride in them as he should. They were will thought out. So after the conference there was no question about his technical abilities and being able to see right to a practical solution. Even many of his posts here were about just that kind of thing. Don't look for a zebra when a horse will do. Even his tone decoders were simplistically practical.

His tips and insights will be missed. 

Clay

On Saturday, July 25, 2015 at 9:41:35 PM UTC+12, Rick Lyons wrote:
> Hi,
>  In the Russian culture it's traditional to formally 
> remember a deceased family member, or friend, 40 days 
> after the day of their passing.  Today it's been 40 
> days since Vladimir Vassilevsky left this world.
> 
> My memory of Vlad, as his friends called him, is that 
> he was a highly skilled engineer.  Over the years of 
> exchanging signal processing ideas with Vlad I had the 
> distinct impression that he knew more about signal 
> processing than I did.  That made our relationship 
> beneficial to me.  One thing was clear, he had far more 
> practical signal processing implementation experience 
> than I had. 
> 
> Vladimir had the original idea to have the 2010 Comp.dsp 
> Conference in Kansas city.  I helped him organize the 
> conference but he and his wife Lena, by far, did the bulk 
> of the work to make the conference a success.  (Vladimir 
> was NOT a lazy guy.)  In addition to that Vlad and Lena 
> graciously welcomed the conference attendees into their 
> home for dinner the night before the conference started.
> 
> In the evening of the first day of the conference Vlad 
> arranged for the attendees to have dinner together in a 
> private back room of a local Chinese restaurant.  Vlad 
> knew that the restaurant did not have a license to sell 
> beer, but he did not let that stop him.  Five minutes after 
> we all sat down in our private room three 12-packs of 
> Heineken beer were magically delivered to us through 
> the back door of the restaurant. Ha ha. I could see 
> that Vlad certainly was a "problem solving" kinda guy.
> 
> Vladimir also had the good sense of humor--he told me 
> one of my favorite adult jokes.  Unless someone asks me, 
> I won't repeat the joke here for fear of offending 
> sensitive feminine ears.
> 
> I'll miss Vladimir.
> 
>    "I remember those happy days and often wish I could
>     speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which 
>     was due to them in life and so ill-returned."
>                                         --Gwyn Thomas
> 
> [-Rick-]

Was that the guy who used to reply Stupindo to every question? Or am I mixing him up with somebody else?

Vladimir's wife asked me to post this for her:

Gentlemen,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Vlad. It is nice to know
that he is missed and remembered here too.
He spent many happy hours writing and arguing about dsp, and I am sure
sometimes got more personal then the topic warranted.

Lena Vassilevsky


Eric Jacobsen
Anchor Hill Communications
http://www.anchorhill.com

Like, Rick, I also had the opportunity to work with Vlad and 
Lena on the 2010 comp.dsp conference, so I got to knew them a 
little before the conference. Vlad and Lena were great hosts. 
They made everyone feel very welcomed.

We all know that Vlad was a complicated guy. He could be coarse 
and he could be brilliant, often at the same time. He was one of 
us.

I think that all the comp.dsp'rs will miss him. I certainly do.

Al Clark