Honoring the memory and contributions of former professors and instructors who died while on faculty or after retiring from the Department of Computing
Gordon L. Bailes, Ph.D.
Born April 18, 1946, in Greenwood, SC, Don passed away on May 29, 2022, in Johnson City, TN. He was educated in Math and Computer Science at Clemson University, which remained close to his heart for the rest of his life. After receiving his PhD, he joined East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, where he dedicated the rest of his professional life (50 years) to educating young people and furthering Computer Science education by authoring textbooks and articles and by serving on The Computing Science Accreditation Board, who honored him for serving as team chair five times beyond his original five years of service as Computing Accreditation Commission team chair. He was an enthusiastic lover of his Clemson Tigers and all things water - scuba diving, water skiing, and boating.
Since 1972, Don was the first program director for Computer Science in the Department of Mathematics, and became the Founding Chair of the Department of Computer Science at ETSU the fall of 1977. Don served as Chair for 20 years, and continued to impact the lives of many Computing students for the remaining 30 years of his career.
James Pleasant, Ph.D.
Dr. James C. (Jim) Pleasant, age 84, passed away at home on the morning of January 3, 2021, with his wife of almost 64 years, Louise Dickerson Pleasant, by his side. Jim was born on January 9, 1936, in Greenville, North Carolina. Upon graduating from Greenville High School in 1954, he studied mathematics at East Carolina University (ECU), where he met and married Louise. After completing his B.S. in 1958, Jim taught high school mathematics for one year before completing an M.S. mathematics at ECU in 1960 and his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia in 1964. He taught for two years in the ECU mathematics department before accepting a position in 1966 as a professor at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Jim served on the faculty at ETSU for more than three decades, retiring from the Computer Science Department as an emeritus professor in 2003. He then taught at Milligan College for one year before returning to ECU to teach until he fully retired in 2011. Jim will be remembered as an enthusiastic supporter of the arts and the sciences; as an accomplished professor, scholar, and lifelong learner with multiple interests and talents; a loving, kind, fair, honest, and hard-working individual; and as a devoted and beloved head of a close-knit family.
Rikki Cornett
Frederica "Rikki" Dare Cornett, 78, passed away on July 30, 2020. Rikki was born in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, and lived in several cities as a child. After her family returned to the area, she graduated from Cloudland High School, and later earned both a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from East Tennessee State University. After working as a chemist for the Food and Drug Administration in Cincinnati, Ohio she married and returned to live in Bristol, and then on a small farm near Bluff City. She also returned to ETSU and earned her Master's degree in Computer Science. She then pursued a teaching career at ETSU in the Computer Science Department, where she taught a variety of subjects, including Cobol, until retiring in the late 1990’s. Rikki is remembered as a meaningful member of the Computing Department: a voice of wit and wisdom to all.
Samuel Burke
Samuel Jessie Burke III of Jonesborough, 67, passed away suddenly on Friday, October 27, 2017 at Johnson City Medical following complications due to open heart surgery. Sam, a longtime resident of Jonesborough, Tennessee, graduated in 1968 from Frankfurt High School-Frankfurt, Germany and served as a Sgt. in the Air Defense Artillery branch of the US Army as a HAWK missile radar technician.
Sam was a faculty member in the Department of Computing at ETSU for 15 years, teaching an occasional course on electronic music-- Sam was a gifted and sought-after bass player and vocalist-- and directing the department’s Using Information Technology (UIT) service course and. As UIT director, Sam was responsible for providing computer knowledge to over 2000 students per year and mentoring the department's graduate teaching assistants.
Donald Sanderson, Ph.D.
Dr. Donald Bruce Sanderson, 49, of Jonesborough, TN, passed away Saturday, April 16, 2011. Don grew up in Queens, NY, moved to Kings Park, NY, at the age of 3, then at the age of 13 moved with his family to Sarasota, FL, where he attended and graduated from Pine View School. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from New College of Florida (1984) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1986, 1994).
In 1993, Don began a successful career in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at East Tennessee State University becoming a full professor receiving the Dan and Tammy Eldridge Faculty Fellowship. A gifted teacher, he won many awards and accolades for teaching and service during his tenure at ETSU. Known to his students as the “database guy,” he often weaved his loves for science fiction and Disney into his lectures. Don was a peer evaluator and IDEAL scholar for ABET, his discipline's accrediting body, and gave numerous presentations and workshops to help schools become accredited.
Jerry Sayers
Jerry Ellis Sayers passed away on June 3, 2002, a few days short of his 56th birthday, of consequences from leukemia, likely due to exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Jerry, who was born in Winston-Salem, NC on 12 June 1946, lived most of his life in Johnson City, graduating from Science Hill in 1964. He earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from UT-Knoxville, then served with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam as a machine gunner's assistant and radio operator. After that, he spent some years in Montana hiking and mountain climbing while pursuing graduate studies in geology at the University of Montana in Missoula, where he did some of his first computer programming. Jerry returned to Johnson City before finishing his degree to help care for his parents; took a position at ETSU in computer services; then taught in the department while completing an M.S. in mathematics through Memphis State University in summer 1984. After working for a year at Kodak, he joined the full-time faculty at ETSU; consulted for the Dept. of Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and remained on faculty until his death in 2002.
Jerry taught the department's courses on operating systems and architecture in an era when computer platforms were in foment, transitioning from mainframes to desktops to PCs. His passions included hiking, mountain-climbing , camping, mountain biking, sailing, windsurfing, and coin collecting. Jerry was respected as a caring and precise instructor and regarded as a vital member of the department during his all-too-short time at ETSU.