James Philip Guenther Sterbenz
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Memorial services for James Philip Guenther Sterbenz, 62, Lawrence will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 10, 2019 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lawrence. He passed away Monday, February 25, 2019 at his home.
James was born in June 1956 and grew up in University City, Missouri, the son of Bertram and Lois (Link) Sterbenz. He attended Washington University St. Louis, receiving multiple undergraduate degrees and a doctorate (D.Sc.) in Computer Science in 1991.
Dr. Sterbenz joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science faculty of the University of Kansas in 2005. He received the Miller Award from the KU School of Engineering in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The Engineering Miller award recognizes outstanding work by Engineering faculty. Dr. Sterbenz is an internationally known expert in Internet communications networks and an author of two books and over 120 journal and conference papers in the field. James connected KU with many universities across the globe, having adjunct or visiting professor appointments at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. He served his profession in many ways and his research was supported by multiple federal agencies. Dr. Sterbenz mentored many graduate students who have gone on to successful careers in industry.
James had many hobbies. He always had his Nikon camera and many lenses at the ready. His trademark Aussie hat adorned many photos of places he had been and the delightful meals (and beverages) he had enjoyed. He loved music, and was particularly knowledgeable about film scores, instrumental, and symphonic music. Instilled in him by his father was a love for organ music. He had a unique appreciation for all aspects of railroad signaling and enjoyed many hours in train stations photographing and trying to document the signaling protocols of many different national railways. He was a weekend arborist and enjoyed caring for trees as well as adorning them with Christmas lights (which he insisted should remain lit, even during the nights well after the new year). Decorating at Christmas was one of his joys, and he was proud to carve the turkey and make the oyster stuffing. A collector of many different things, James particularly enjoyed his collection of fountain pens and used them whenever he could. One of his many passions included taking care of and playing with cats. He was involved in the recent city council proceedings regarding the plans for taking care of feral cats, championing the capture, neuter, and release of these cats.
He was married to his wife Kris for 34 years and they had one daughter, Kat. He also leaves behind four furry felines.
Other survivors include a brother, David Sterbenz and a sister, Leslie (Cliff) Sterbenz Schmid James was preceded in death by his parents.
The family will greet friends from 3:00 ~ 4:00 p.m., Sunday, March 10, 2019 at the church prior to the service.
Memorial contributions may be made in his name to The Lawrence Humane Society to start the fund to neuter, trap, and release feral cats, or a fund has been set up to help young orchestra musicians keep on learning and making music at Seaman High School
Memorials may be sent to Seaman High School. In the memo section: in memory of James Sterbenz
Address: Seaman High School
4850 NW Rochester Rd
Topeka, KS. 66617
On envelope Attn: Kat Sterbenz
or either memorial may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.
For a short time, a wonderful tribute written by Burkhard Stiller is available at https://www.csg.uzh.ch/.
This was a rare gem of a person who cared about the world around him, his family, friends, fairness, equality, social issues, strays and cats. He was technically brilliant, published, involved, kind, generous, a world traveler who made marks in many sectors including our hearts. He is sorely missed and our lives are dimmer. I can only hope I can see him again. Perhaps he has gathered our babies together who have crossed the rainbow bridge like the Pied Piper he was…I will forever hold him and those he loved dear, his beloved Kris and Kat…Goodbye dearest friend.
Kris and Kat, I am so sorry for your shattering loss. James was a man in ten thousand, a witty and knowledgeable and giving man whose friendship I cherished, even tho’ I live far away in Canada and we only met once face to face. I’m holding you in my heart and send gentle skritches to the cats as well.
My deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. I met Jim through a University City High School group on Facebook. His posts were always interesting, thoughtful, funny, and often filled with photos of his adventures. My heartfelt prayer is that he is at peace and will be remembered by all of us.
James enjoyed life more than anyone else we know. He loved his wife Kris and his daughter Kat unreservedly. His efforts to train his many cats through the years were legendary and fruitless and endearing at all times. That his memorial legacy be one of kindness to even more cats is most fitting.
We will remember him with a beer in each hand, grinning at the camera, having a gripping, fierce and funny conversation about one of the gazillion topics in which he was an expert.
And we will always wish he was just away on a business trip, about to make his way home.
James was a friend to me via social media for many years before he became a friend to my husband and me in person during a visit to Indiana a few years ago. We bonded over cats, cameras, and travel–and the fact that James and I grew up a few blocks away from one another in U City! There are many James-shaped holes in my life online and in my heart now, and I am so deeply sorry that his family has had to suffer this terrible loss in their lives every day.
James was a friend on social media who I had the privilege to meet in person. Like Debbie, I find myself with a James-shaped hole in my life. My deepest condolences for you me loss
I first met James when in graduate school at UPenn in the late 1980s through a tree of indirectly shared advisors. James was working at IBM at the time and he and I shared deep interest in high speed networking throughout our careers that began there. We later worked together in the IEEE, trading leads on technical committees and chairing meetings to refine the “gigabit problem” that was the focus of both our theses. James’ Axon dissertation was arguably the first on ‘zero-copy’, a key technique to help overcome that problem.
In 1999 we chaired a conference on that problem (leading to co-editing one book together) and realized we had spent the better part of the prior decade both answering the same questions repeatedly – how to make networks work faster, and he decided we should log our experience as book (our second, though as authors this time) – an experience I still look back on fondly and remain as proud of as the day it was issued.
He and I worked together many times over our careers, spending many “gap” days at conferences wandering around cities around the world. This included many visits to train platforms where he would photographically document train signals – a passion he shared with Bob Braden, all the while sporting his trademark hat and “bat belt” of assorted tools, ‘just in case’.
James was my first professional colleague, someone who helped both mentor me and later work by my side. I’m deeply sorry to see him pass, but very grateful for the time he shared with me.
Our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues around the globe.
I am deeply saddened by the passing of a person I knew only online. I sent him some ink colors, once and we chatted on occasion. What I know in my bones is this: he was a good and nice person. Good and nice in the way we need more people to be, the sort of good and nice that come to mind when you think of Fred Rodgers. Perfect? Never. I’m glad for that, because we need more good and nice people to show others that you don’t have to be perfect to leave your mark in the world. James left his mark, in Noodler’s Fox Red and Green Marine.
This is VP (Venkatesha Prasad) from TUDelft and an Indian.
I worked with James as one of his colleagues in TCCC taking care of standards side.
I met him a few times during ICC/Globecom. Many may wonder how and why I can pen down something whom I just saw a couple of times!
The impression he left was amazing! He was so playful and with lots of energy. The way he treated his colleagues was amazing. Before the meeting we met and he offered a drink and asked me my work, etc. We had some chat w.r.t to India, etc. He was full of Joy and goodwill.
He left a huge, huge, positive impression.
I pray for strength to his family & friends.
May he find peace & tranquillity.
Kris and Kat, sincere condolences: our thoughts and prayers are with you.
James was a special friend, through our shared interests (cats, music, trains, wine, …), and we remember fondly his many visits and the experiences we had together over the years.
I knew and worked with James for a long time, first on programmable networks and for the past ten years on network resilience. I am very proud to have been a colleague of James, and I’ll always value the hours we spent in technical discussions, working on papers – and socializing. We travelled together and met in so many places across the globe; one abiding memory will be the vast extent of his luggage – I never managed to persuade him to travel lightly.
James will be sorely missed by the many people who knew him here in Lancaster, across Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
James was a marvellous friend and a colleague – on his many trips to the UK, he inspired many with his wonderful inclusiveness and insightful discussions with students and faculty on technical matters but also on cameras and music and just about anything of interest. Our community has lost a wonderful person, and we are very sad. Our thoughts are with you.
The world is a poorer place without him.
I still remember vividly that day in graduate school when all of us, his colleagues and buddies, were surprised to see him add a second initial to his online name. He used to be just James P Sterbenz, and then all of a sudden one day he was James PG Sterbenz. Something inside him suddenly felt it had to honor the Guenther side of his family that day. Maybe one day his grandkids will honor him similarly by adding an extra J to their names, in rememberance of a great man, one who radiated positive energy and a passion for learning about anything and everything.
I’ve known James for a few years now connected through a mutual contact on Facebook. Through those years, I’ve grown to look forward to our intellectual exchanges, the excitement of him decorating for Christmas, the jet-setting periods of the year, the countless kitty pics, and the continual passion for everything in his life. Although I never met him in person, I will miss seeing his posts every day and enjoying a good exchange about fountain pens, politics, education, or anything at all. James was a good man, great friend, and all around one of the most respectable people I’ve had the honor of knowing.
Like many above, I never met James in person, only via friends on social media. Nonetheless, he came through as incredibly kind and interesting. I will never forget his kindness and generosity to me and my family when we suddenly lost my daughter at KU med and his offer to do anything to help, despite our never having met. I feel I know a little about you, Kris and Kat, from his pictures and posts and know how much his family meant to him. That includes the kitties. I will miss keeping up with his adventures, his silliness with the hats and Christmas decorations, and the morning breakfast shots of the cats, especially Miss Mini-Moo. I hope it helps even a little to know how much his presence moved the world towards a kinder place. May his memory ever be a blessing, and I am sure that it will. Peace and comfort to you.
James was a friend and a mentor. Among a large group of friends who’ve been patient with me over my years in academe as I learned patience myself, James was among a very few who was always available for thoughtful advice. He hated inequity and bad behavior. His presence in my life really did make me a better person. Just last weekend, we were messaging about a situation at work. Thank you both for sharing him with us. I hope that you can hold one another close and tell stories about him in the coming days and weeks.
I am truly saddened to hear of James’s passing. It is so unexpected. His heart was always in the right place, and he made me laugh and smile. On top of that, he was a scientist’s scientist and a good colleague. I’m really going to miss him.
I was deeply saddened to hear of James’ passing. I knew James for several years, as a friend and colleague within the academic community here in the UK. He was a wonderful person, and I was always very happy to see him during his visits. It was always a pleasure to hear his latest ideas, and he was relentlessly supportive of the people around him. He will be greatly missed.
I’m so sad to hear about James. It would always be brilliant to see him on his many visits to the UK. He really will be genuinely missed here. I greatly admired his passion for social issues. I will miss the enthusiasm he brought both to everything he did from big political issues to his many hobbies and interests.
I am so sad to hear that James has gone. He was always fantastic to talk to, both on social media and in the pub. He was warmly embraced by the UK academic community and will be sorely missed by all of us.
I’ve known James since my graduate student days in the mid-1990s. He’s always been a role model for the community – and me,. He not only cared about doing excellent research, but also mentoring the next generation of (networking) computer scientists and engineers, as well as building and fostering community. His last contribution he shared with the community was his lecture on academic integrity and ethics, a fitting testament to his concern not just for the “what” of research, but also the “how”. His influence reached far beyond the university – he taught seminars in the UK, he contributed to numerous Dagstuhl seminars, and he helped lead the computer networks parts of the professional CS and EE community.
I write this note with a heavy heart and a deep sense of sadness at the realization our Dear Friend James has passed on.
James holds a special place in my life. When I joined Guru’s research group in CCRC in WashU, James was the senior most PhD. student — in the last phase of his dissertation — having already published many papers on his AXON work — papers which I had read before arriving at WashU. The day I arrived in St. Louis, Sept 6, 1991, James (along with another student from our group (Zubin)) received me at the St. Louis Lambert airport. I can still vividly remember that stormy evening, the overnight power failure and James’s Sirocco. Over the next year, I got to know James well — we worked together — me as his apprentice – learning more about his work, about computer simulations, helping create and run his simulation models and eventually ending up as a co-author on his paper. During that year, I got to closely observe his fascination with railway signaling, his meticulous writing, methodical work habits and almost geeky love of ink pens. Even though he finished his Doctorate and moved on to east coast to work in various research outfits and continued to make impact on networking community, we all fondly remembered James and tracked his research work. I would be always grateful to James for the valuable training in my first year.
Recently with the privilege of being in the list of his facebook friends, I got to share a window on his exciting travels, quirky dreams, Christmas decorations, his love of music, food, cameras, computers, airport lounges, politics, travels and above all his love of family and cats. His original brand of humor, quirkiness, passion and boundless energy always shining and infectiously passing to me even through cyberspace.
I am sure he is up there sharing a pint with the Gods and talking about his favorite topics. I will remember you always and miss you James…..
My deepest condolences to Kris and Kat. May James’s memories and ever present energy give you strength to carry on and further his legacy
James, z’l” (of blessed memory) was a wonderful friend whom I met in the academic milieu. I can’t explain how much I will miss his wit, his extensive knowledge on so many subjects, which allowed for great conversation on an endless number of topics, and even though cats aren’t my thing, his oft posted cat photos on FB. I could always count on him to lift my spirits. He was special, and the world is a sadder place without him. My deepest condolences to wife Kris, daughter Kat, and all his family. May his memory forever be for a blessing.
A tear came to my eye this afternoon(14 Sep 2019), reading the classnotes in the Washington University magazine. I grew up down the block for Jim(I called him Jim more often than James) he in the corner house at Cornell and Pennsylvania; and I half way down the block near Varsity Walk. I went to grade school at Flynn Park and then Jackson Park and I think he went to Delmar Harvard. I would walk or ride my bike past his home almost everyday off to play in Lewis Park. Becoming teenagers we parted ways, different friends, junior high school – separate friends; but reconnected at Washington University several years later. Taking classes together and both working in Olin Library on the 4th floor. School marks(grades) did not come easy for Jim as he had so many different interests. Whether envying his appreciation of music or him able to fix my bike; we both struggled through – and both of us took an extra year and as I went to medical school and then the Navy, Jim blossomed in graduate school and obtained is doctorate. We would find time once or twice a year to connect. The vivid memories of going to his home over the winter holidays, his entire family; but especially his mother and sister were a part of my childhood. We all go separate paths and I was fortunate to have known his wife Kris early in their marriage. There is a open/emptiness part of me and sadness as I read about his growth at University of Kansas.
A truely good man and one who as I reflect on my childhood helped me grow — I will surely, more than he would have ever realized; surely miss.