David Paul Moffett, PE

David P. Moffett, PE was a young man of great curiosity, talent, and intellect; he also was a man with a kind and compassionate heart. He enjoyed good jokes and great people. He was helpful to many people and his friends report again and again on his helpful cheerfulness. He grew up in a very loving and supportive family.

David was born to Suzanne and Paul Moffett on February 28, 1956, just 14 minutes before a leap year day, in El Paso, Texas. His father was serving in the U.S. Army. Within about six months the military service was completed and the family returned home to Indianapolis. When David’s younger sister, Wendy, was born about seven years later he was very protective of her as he was of others.

Early on David became an independently thinking child and believed very strongly in fairness. His mother spent much time teaching him school subjects and straight line thinking. His father taught him many useful skills and other approaches to thinking. The family traveled widely so that the children would have greater experience with the world. These trips took them from Alaska to Key West and from Nova Scotia to southern California. They also traveled in the Caribbean and other parts of Canada. They traveled by car, plane, railway, and boat, and David became an accomplished house boat steersman.

He attended Spring Mill grade school where a talented teacher taught him to love reading – as introduced by the Tom Swift book series. He attended Northview Junior High School and North Central High School where he excelled in technical theater as part of a school sponsored traveling theater group. He was also in the very first computer programming class offered by the J. Everett Light Career Center. He had been looking for just such a class, and it opened his path to a great many job opportunities with many companies beginning with the Home Computer Store, one of north side Indianapolis’ first retailers of Apple Computers.

After high school he went on to Purdue University where he received B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering. At the time of his death he was well along on his Ph.D.

While studying he also worked in various computer positions. He set up operating computer systems for Energy Micro Systems from 1982 to 1984. From 1984 to 1990 he was Director of Management Information Systems for Ritron, Inc. In 1992 he became Senior Transportation Engineer for Bernarden Lochmueler & Associates, a position he held until 1996. Having completed the final requirements for his license he became a Registered Professional Engineer in 2000. He set up and maintained the computer system for Etching Industries. He also consulted on computer systems and highway traffic engineering through Vutar Technologies. For the last two years he has served Purdue as Associate Vice President for Research Computing, working in a number of Information Technology areas. As part of this work he has traveled widely to represent Purdue at conferences and seminars. He has also met with many major companies on behalf of Purdue.

At Purdue he and Garret Jeong designed and built ACME – the Advance Compute Matrix for Engineering. This Beowolf style compute cluster is made up of 27 salvaged computers arranged in a 5X5 matrix all running PVM and or MPI and as O/S Free BSD. ACME is a very successful attempt to build an inexpensive super computer. The system is running today working on calculating information for David’s Ph.D. thesis among other tasks.

Among his many interests were the Tippecanoe Amateur Radio Association, Audio Engineering Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the IEEE Computer Society.

David was working on a book called Software Engineering: A Rant which takes a common sense look at software engineering and the political processes which surround it.

For the last couple of years he had been rehabilitating a 1950s house in Lafayette into which he planned to move when it was finished. This work helped to reduce the stress of his job and gave him great “hands-on” satisfaction.

Many will miss his help, advice, and cheerfulness. He was a cherished friend to many.

David Paul Moffett, PE, 48, Lafayette, formerly of Indianapolis, died on Sunday, June 13, 2004, at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his sister, Wendy Moffett Johnson (Jack); grandfather, Vergil Berry; aunt, Virginia Berry; cousin, John Marsh.

To learn more about David, view his Life Story film, and visit with his family and friends on Thursday June 17th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Leppert Mortuary, Nora Chapel, 740 East 86th Street, Indianapolis (317)844-3966 or 1-800-721-0099. A celebration of his life will begin at 2 p.m. with interment at Crown Hill Cemetery. To read David’s life story, share a favorite memory, order flowers, or make a memorial contribution in his memory to the Computer Curriculum, Washington Township Schools Foundation, please visit www.lifestorynet.com.

All who knew David Moffett will treasure his memory.