James F. Gimpel

James F. Gimpel, 88, of Collegeville, went to the Lord on Sunday, May 26, 2024.  He was the beloved husband of Anneliese (Napholz) Gimpel, his wife of 48 years.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Laura Woodard (Jason) of New York City, Scott Gimpel (Julia Smith) of Conshohocken, and Kevin Gimpel (Flor De Maria) of Naperville, IL; five grandchildren, Katherine, Evan, Madelyn, Emmaline, and Hope Isabel; a brother, Jack Gimpel (Mary Jean) of Lafayette Hill; and a large extended family.

Born August 6, 1935 in Philadelphia, Jim was the son of the late Charles and Elizabeth (Matusko) Gimpel.  He was preceded in death by a brother and sister-in-law, Bud and Pat Gimpel.

Jim was raised in Philadelphia and attended St. Henry's Catholic School and Northeast Catholic High School.  After serving in the United States Army, he received his B.S from Drexel University on the GI Bill, and then earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Dr. Gimpel began his career as a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories where he programmed on the IBM/370 mainframe using punched cards.  He was involved in the development of Multics, PL/1, UNIX, the C language and  SNOBOL (including the Tower of Hanoi algorithm).   Jim published numerous technical papers and in the SNOBOL world, his book "Algorithms in SNOBOL4" is known as the "orange" book.

Jim enjoyed teaching and he was an adjunct professor at Stevens Institute of Technology (which resulted in SITBOL, a SNOBOL4  for the PDP-10), Rutgers University and Temple University.  After a stint doing research at Sperry Univac, he became an Associate Professor in Computer Science at Lehigh University, during which he wrote BASTOC, a Basic to C translator.

With the introduction of the IBM PC and based on Jim's work with the C language at the Labs, he saw the need for a C interpreter so he wrote C-terp, and founded Gimpel Software in 1984 to market it.  This work lead to the realization that because C could be a dangerous language, a static analyzer (similar to the UNIX lint) was needed and this resulted in the award winning PC-lint, followed by FlexeLint, The C Shroud (a C obfuscator) and C-Vision (with John Rex).  Jim sold his company in 2022 and retired.  PC-lint Version 1.0 was released in May 1985, and it lives on as PC-lint Plus 2.0, which is being actively developed and enhanced and is used by C/C++ programmers world-wide.

Jim testified in Harrisburg about the unavoidable dangers inherent in the use of computers in elections.  He read extensively and enjoyed learning "real" history and researching controversial topics, such as the real identity of Shakespeare (Earl of Oxford), the Federal Reserve, the JFK assassination, the attack on the USS Liberty, Vince Foster,  9-11,  COVID, and much more.

Jim always had time for family and friends and never missed an opportunity to give a speech at social events.  He enjoyed working at church functions, especially calling Bingo numbers on Wednesday night.  Summers meant golf, especially with his grade school friends, "The 38 Club", and winters meant going to Florida for golf, bridge, pool volleyball, walks on the beach, and meeting up with friends.

He was a beloved Uncle Jim to his 14 nieces and nephews and always made time for them, whether it was sandcastles at Wildwood, the Franklin Museum, Thanksgiving Day Parade, volleyball, or snow skiing.

This was good practice for when he had his own children.  He loved playing soccer in the backyard (he would run backwards but the children could run forwards), acting out fairy tales with Legos on the den floor, playing Encore (he would make up his own lyrics), Charades, chess and go.  Playing Sierra "Quest" games, Sim games and Gridiron, on the Amiga, was a family affair.  Jim also taught Visual Basic to the computer club at his children's elementary school.  All this exposure to computers led to computer related careers for all his children.

Growing up, Jim and his friends liked to get dressed up and put on plays in the basement.  This love of theater continued and he set a goal to watch a live professional performance of each of Shakespeare's plays; he got to 33 plays, missing just 5 Histories.  Much more important to him was supporting his children in their theater and video activities which included many, many performances in summer theatre camp, community theater and school productions.

After his children were grown, Jim was always available to provide guidance concerning their academic and career pursuits.  He was blessed with five wonderful grandchildren and loved spending time with them.

Relatives and friends may call after 9:00 a.m. Friday, May 31, 2024 at Presentation of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church, 1564 Allentown Road, Lansdale, followed by the Funeral Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.  Burial will be in St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Norristown.  Arrangements are by the Huff & Lakjer Funeral Home, Lansdale.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in Jim's memory to A Baby's Breath, 2062 W. Main Street, Jeffersonville, PA 19403.