Tom Conlon - Guestbook

In remembrance of Tom Conlon

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Name: Andreas Lercher
From: Austria
E-mail: Contact

We met at the conference in Tallinn and Helsinki. I remember him as a very special person. We will miss you and your way telling the things how they are and how they could be.

Added: January 8, 2009

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Name: Alistair Murdoch
From: PGDE Student 2006
E-mail: Contact

I am fortunate enough to have studied with Tom for a year at Moray House, undertaking my PGDE in Secondary Education in 2006.

Without doubt, the most inspirational educator I have known in all my years of learning. Not only have you motivated me in my career as a new teacher, Tom, but much of what you spoke of and passed on, has affected my outlook on life in general. For that, I will be forever grateful.

A very great loss to Scottish Education.

Added: January 7, 2009

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Name: Eleanor
From: Bristol
E-mail: Contact

To all who knew Tom, my deepest condolences. I am so very sorry for your loss... Long may Tom's life and good work continue to be a light for many.

Added: January 6, 2009

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Name: Steve Gregory
From: Bristol
E-mail: Contact

Many people will know Tom through his teaching, research, and the huge impact that he had on education in Scotland. To me he was a friend, business partner, keen programmer, and above all a brilliant communicator.

The first time I heard of Tom was in late 1985. I’d just finished my PhD in parallel logic programming (Parlog), and Tom’s book “Start Problem Solving with Prolog” had just been published. That book was a masterpiece. Logic programming was a field that attracted people who liked to make things unnecessarily complicated; Tom turned that upside down by explaining Prolog in a way that anyone could understand.

I thought that it would be great if Tom could do the same with Parlog as he had done for Prolog. Incredibly, it turned out that Tom had the same idea, and he embarked on his next big project: to bring parallel logic programming to the masses. Tom’s new book was only part of the story: we also needed to develop software that anyone could use. By the beginning of 1989, we were all set: Tom’s “Programming in Parlog” was published and the software was ready. We set up a company, PLP, to sell the software. Although the world lost interest in parallel logic programming long ago, the company is still thriving twenty years later, currently selling Tom’s educational software: InterModeller and Conception.

Tom was the greatest communicator I’ve known. He always had something to say and wrote beautifully: books, papers, political articles, and even advertising blurb for PLP. As well as writing English, he spent much of his “spare” time writing code, developing a succession of software systems: Parlog, PhraseMaker, Primex, InterModeller, Conception, among others. Tom believed so firmly in the power of software to communicate ideas to learners that he just had to develop it himself.

The idea of Tom as an entrepreneur may seem the most strange to those who knew him. “Capitalism’s a hoot!”, he observed in the early days of PLP. In fact, the aim of PLP was never to make a profit; it was yet another way to communicate, by making our ideas available to as many people as possible. It’s some consolation that, through his software, Tom will go on actively teaching students for years to come.

Finally, Tom was a thoroughly nice person and a close friend and colleague. Separated by 400 miles, we rarely met in person, but we were always in touch, averaging three emails a week over the last 18 years. Tom’s untimely departure is an enormous loss to me and everyone else who knew him.

Added: January 3, 2009

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