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JohnAmrhein
Fluorite | Level 6

Celebration Board

Take a moment during the conference to celebrate the SAS community. Share accomplishments, recognize innovators, give a shout out or commemorate peers.

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The Celebration Board provides you a place to recognise SAS Users by writing a few words or posting pre-prepared material about a SAS User that you wish to recognize. The board will be placed prominently at the conference, so please stop by to read about special members of our community and post your own celebratory messages.

7 REPLIES 7
AndrewHowell
Moderator

Remembering Andrew Karp

Andrew Karp

 

Sadly, Andrew Karp passed away mid-2016 after battling depression..

 

Andrew first started using SAS in 1983 as a graduate student at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and continued using it professionally in roles with Federal Express, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Pacific Gas & Electric before starting his own independent SAS Software consulting and training firm in 1992, originally called "Sierra Information Services". In 2012 it was renamed "Sierra Data Science".

 

During his 22 years as an independent consultant Andrew provided training and/or consulting services using SAS Software tools for predictive modeling, reporting, database management, and customer segmentation for clients in many industry sectors. From 1980 to 1995 he taught semester-length classes in various SAS Software topics for UC Berkley's Extension Division, and also gave academic seminars about SAS at other academic institutions during the course of his career.

 

He was very active with local and regional user groups, serving on the Executive Committee of the Western Users of SAS Software and of the Pacific NW SAS Users Group, as well as chair of the Sacramento Valley SUG for many years. He was in invited speaker at 17 consecutive SUGI/SGF conferences. Andrew also spoke at other events for SAS users throughout the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska), as well as Canada, Singapore, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway. He was a member of the SAS Institute "Circle of Excellence", recognizing his long-term service to the SAS user community.

 

Andrew served on the review teams for eight titles published by SAS Press.

 

He also served as a co-moderator of the SAS Professional Forum LinkedIn group (the largest SAS user group on LinkedIn).

 

Our thoughts reach out to his surviving mother & sister in Freehold, NJ, as well as niece and nephew.

 

ArtC
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

An "In Memoriam" category has been started on sasCommunity http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Category:In_Memoriam

to recognize those who have contributed to the user community.  I have added an article about Andrew.  If there are other SAS users that have passed away, but you would like to see recognized, please add them to sasCommunity (or send the information to me and i will post it). You can also add additional information on those that are already listed.

 

SJSlaughter
Obsidian | Level 7

I am glad to see Andrew commemorated.  He was a big contributor to the SAS user community for many years.  Andrew had some amazing stories to tell.  If you spent enough time with him, say waiting for a flight after a conference, then after a while he might mention one of his many remarkable experiences.  For example, he told me once that when he was just beginning to teach SAS classes, he was in a hotel and who should sit down next to him but Ray Bradbury.  Bradbury was very interested in what Andrew was doing.  They had a long discussion, and Ray Bradbury gave him advice about how to teach SAS!  Who else would get advice about teaching SAS from Ray Bradbury?  Only Andrew.
 

Vince_SAS
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

From my email archive...

 

From: Andrew H Karp, Sierra Info. Services [mailto:andrew@sierrainformation.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 9:50 PM
Subject: RE: presentations, contact Info, optional Monday presenters meeting etc....

I feel compelled to add my 4.7 cents to this thread.

I first started teaching others about SAS in 1989 as a part time instructor at UC Berkeley's Extension Division.  Of course, as a new instructor, I had no idea how much material was 'enough' for each lecture and would obsess about not having prepared enough for each class meeting.  My classes were on Saturdays and I would typically have what I started to call the "Friday Night Frenzies" getting ready for class the next morning.

Well, at the time I was working during the week for a consulting firm on a project in Colorado Springs and one evening had set up my books, notes, etc. in the concierge lounge on the top floor of the hotel at which I was staying and started preparing that week's lecture.  Another guest was in the lounge, who was having a wonderful time chatting with the concierge about all manner of things.  After a while, I joined in this chat and was amazed at the mental fluidity of this man and both his wide range of knowledge and his imagination.  Frankly, I was captivated by this person's storytelling ability and the speed with which he could form ideas in his mind.  I'd never met anyone quite like this.

A ways in to our chat--which lasted about three hours, if memory serves--he asked me what I was working on.  I told him I was preparing a lecture for my class that would meet in a couple of days at UC Berkeley.  "Oh," he replied, "that's very interesting.  I am here in Colordao Springs to talk to cadets at the Air Force Academy tomorrow."  He then asked me "why are you preparing so much for your lecture?"  When I replied that I was new to teaching and wanted to be ready to give a good lecture he asked "but you know this material in your mind already, right?"  When I said yes, I felt I already knew it he said "then teach from your heart and from your mind, not from your notes.  You know the material, you don't need to prepare so much if you already know it as well as you apparently do."

We continued to talk until he made a brief comment about wrote a book many years ago about a future society where all books were banned and the fire department went around burning contraband reading material.

It then dawned on me that for the past three hours I had been talking with none other than Ray Bradbury, the eminent science fiction writer and futurist.  Needless to say, I was stunned to realize that I had just spent an entire evening in the company of one of the world's best writers.  I was also shocked at how friendly and low-key he was relative to some other famous people I've met over the years.

I've kept Ray Bradbury's advice in mind now for almost 20 years.  Although I like to prepare, it's also important to teach from the heart and mind, not from your notes.

Thanks,

Andrew Karp


Andrew H. Karp Sierra Information Services 19229 Sonoma Highway PMB 264 Sonoma, CA 95476 USA +1 707 996 7380 voice +1 800 248 8958 fax www.SierraInformation.com alt. email: sierrainfo@aol.com

SJSlaughter
Obsidian | Level 7

Vince, Thank you for posting this.  Andrew's description is so much better than my post.  I didn't know all those details.  Susan

MichelleHomes
Meteorite | Level 14

What a lovely community idea! Smiley Happy

//Contact me to learn how Metacoda software can help keep your SAS platform secure - https://www.metacoda.com
MichelleHomes
Meteorite | Level 14

I'd like to add the following notice of Bill Gibson on the Celebration Board. A spirited man who gave immensely to the SAS community with continuous enthusiasm and excitement. I miss his mentorship...

 

https://communities.sas.com/kntur85557/attachments/kntur85557/sanzoc_community/211/1/Bill%20Gibson.p...

 

//Contact me to learn how Metacoda software can help keep your SAS platform secure - https://www.metacoda.com

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