Ken Smith

Ken Smith achieved a legendary reputation in 40 years at the University at Buffalo. He was Western New York's premier UNIX authority, chief systems architect of UB's Computer Science and Engineering Department, career mentor to more than twelve hundred students, and volunteer staff photographer for numerous socially-beneficial not-for-profits.

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Ken worked as a student systems administrator for the Computer Science Department (it was the 'CS' department until 1998) while working on his MS in Electrical Engineering. As he was preparing to graduate in 1986, then-CS IT Director Harry Delano panicked at the thought of losing Ken, so promptly swung into action to persuade him to accept a full-time staff position.

Thus began Ken's tenure as principal architect of CS's complete compute infrastructure. Ken built it all... compute servers, data storage, networking, security provisioning, IP address management, accounts, custom software, data center management, user support. His goal was always to make CS's compute infrastructure as resilient and self-sufficient as possible, so even if the rest of UB crumbled away around Ken's server rooms in Bell Hall and later Davis Hall, CS/CSE would continue to run without interruption.

Students noticed this quiet guru who seemed to be as one with the UNIX compute infrastructure and sought to apprentice with him to learn his secrets. He informally showed a few students how things work. That evolved into one-credit CS 499 sections to formally mentor several more students. In Fall 1996, Ken founded CS 411: Introduction to Computer Systems Administration to formalize all the vagaries of the profession by imparting practical skills that students can employ on day one, equally effectively at brand-name global tech firms as at local mom-and-pop shops, to build their own resilient, self-sufficient networks. CS 411 was made even more entertaining, challenging, and relatable by Ken sprinkling in oddments and brainteasers that he'd encountered personally... the stuff not found in textbooks. CSE 411 became wildly popular, filling to capacity minutes after course sections opened for enrollment. Demand led him to teach it in both Fall and Spring terms.

With Ken as their instructor, 1,243 students completed CS/CSE 411. Former CSE IT Director Matt Stock noted that students could get jobs and begin careers soley on the basis of the skills they'd learned in CSE 411. It would be interesting to plot a world map of the locations where Ken's former students have made their homes, built their careers, and contributed to their communities' economic well-being and technical know-how.

From the 1990s to the mid-2010s, Ken was active on the FreeBSD UNIX development team, eventually achieving the rank of FreeBSD Project Release Engineer. Here he is quoted in 2012:

"FreeBSD 9.0 represents the culmination of over two years of ground-breaking work in operating system performance, reliability, and security,” said Ken Smith, Release Engineer for the FreeBSD Project. “We are proud to dedicate this release to the memory of Dennis M. Ritchie, one of the founding fathers of the UNIX® operating system, whose vision and work laid the foundations for FreeBSD."

After that, he began a serious study of one of the great passions of his life: photography. And not just photography, but photography employed as a tool to advance socially-beneficial causes. Ken compiled a short list of not-for-profits whose missions accord with his values, then volunteered his services to each of them: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Team RWB. The University at Buffalo Center for the Arts. The University at Buffalo Division of Athletics. Most prominently, and first among equals, the Special Olympics.

Ken quickly won the confidence of Special Olympics upper administration and was entrusted to cover events for Special Olympics New York, Special Olympics Ontario, Special Olympics Unified Cup Detroit, Special Olympics USA Training Camp, Special Olympics USA Games, and Special Olympics North America. He was soon invited to travel internationally to cover the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, California (2015), Graz & Schladming, Austria (2017), Abu Dhabi, UAE (2019), Special Olympics canceled during COVID-19 (2021), and Berlin, Germany (2023). The Kennedy family is a prominent supporter of the Special Olympics; Ken met Timothy Shriver, Maria Shriver, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Special Olympics regularly fundraises with regional Polar Plunge events. At Polar Plunges, participants gather to jump together into icy bodies of water. Ken spent many, many weekends in hip-waders, all over New York State, rapidly snapping the shutter while enthusiastic Polar Plungers frigidly splashed and caroused all around him.

Ken's life was mostly grounded in Buffalo for many years, but as his passion for photography got the better of him, in one weekend he might photograph a Team RWB event in eastern NY, a Polar Plunge in Watertown, and finish up at a UB Athletics event in Rochester. He got smacked with a basketball more than once while sitting cross-legged on the corner of the UB Bulls basketball court. And what would he do on nights off? Why, process the thousands of photos he'd just shot: download, edit, color-correct, select for quality, label, categorize, upload, and deliver.

Ken hosted his photos in his meticulously well-curated SmugMug site.

Despite these noteworthy achievements, I think Ken's most lasting legacy is more subtle than just a long list of accomplishments. Working in CS/CSE as a full-time employee from 1986 to 2025, Ken's tenure spanned the administrations of nine (nine!) CS/CSE Department Chairs (Stuart Shapiro, Alan Selman, Stuart Shapiro (redux), Xin (Roger) He (interim), Bharat Jayaraman, Aidong Zhang, Chunming Qiao, Jinhui Xu, and Dave Doermann). His personality is indelibly ingrained in the culture of UB CSE. We are patient, capable, compassionate, understated, and kind in no small measure because of Ken's contribution to our departmental DNA. The culture propagates forward in time because we attract like-minded people who also embody those traits. With a colleague like Ken, you restrain your worst impulses and bring the best parts of your personality to the fore, because you'd never want to disappoint him.

We love you, Ken. Your legacy is immeasurable.

Ken is survived by his daughter, Julia Smith; brother and sister Keith (Diane) Smith and Kathy (Ken) Aiken; and niece and nephews Kassidy Aiken, Jonathan Smith, Robert Smith, and Kooper Aiken.

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