Vint Cerf, 2000, by Gary Stoy

From MemoryArchive

Who: Gary Stoy
What: Vint Cerf
When: 2000
Where: Washington, DC

Vint Cerf was one of the true founders of the internet, he was fundamentality involved with the design of TCP/IP. It is a concept that is continuing to propagate in the new world of high speed transmission. The concept is basically now known as “Ethernet”.

I started to work for MCI-WorldCom in 2000 and Vint Cerf was the vice-president of the engineering group I worked for. This was one of the main selling points for me to hire on with MCI. I starting working in an engineering group managing MAE West, MAE East, and MAE Central. The MAE’s are basically at place for major internet service providers (ISPs) to share information and “peered” on the internet.

I worked several months in the group before I visited MAE East (in Washington DC) because I was managing an upgrade project there. At the Dulles Airport on the way back to California, I realized that I would be on the same flight as “Vint”. I watch him in the crowd at the airport and noted all the people that came up to him to give best wishes. I did not feel comfortable to meet him in this way in DC, but when we landed in San Jose I saw him with his wife and went up and introduced myself, he gave me his card and I was off.

As time went on, I was part of his group staff meetings. He would introduce his vision of the internet future and tell us of his Presidential and Congressional meetings… and other fun stories (including his support of Al Gore). Another time, for a luncheon meeting he wanted our group’s assessment of the internet business as we were experiencing it day to day (pre-Dot com down turn). The meeting was held in our director’s office for lunch. It was quite an intimate experience to be in the presence of one to the “true” founders of the internet.

Since then, I have received several recommendations signed by Vint Cerf for my work to date. I value these documents for life, since he is a recognized innovator and key player in the world we live in now.