An ANC spokesman said he would be remembered for his modest demeanour his intellect compassion and unwavering commitment to the cause of freedom

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An ANC spokesman said he would be remembered "for his modest demeanour, his intellect, compassion and unwavering commitment to the cause of freedom in this country."I retain my memory of the dark-eyed boy and of the later years, of the adult who spoke to me with quiet passion and strength about the struggle to bring freedom to South Africa And who lived to enjoy success.Benjamin Pogrund. If it had not been for George Pake, the history of computing might have taken a very different path. Pake was director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California where many of today's technologies of computing were invented - above all the graphical user interface that enables computer users to pull down menus and push objects around a virtual world with the click of a mouse. George Edward Pake, research and educational administrator, and physicist: born Jeffersonville, Ohio 1 April 1924; Assistant Professor of Physics, Washington University, St Louis, 1948-52, Associate Professor 1952-53, Professor 1953-56, 1962-69, Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Physics 1969-70; Professor of Physics, Stanford University 1956-62; vice-president of research, Xerox Corporation, 1970-1986; director, Institute for Research on Learning 1986-88 (Emeritus); married (three sons, one daughter); died Tucson, Arizona 4 March 2004. If it had not been for George Pake, the history of computing might have taken a very different path.

He graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1945, and completed a PhD degree in nuclear resonance at Harvard University three years later.He then became an assistant professor at Washington University in St Louis. Although he became the author of three books and more than 50 scientific papers, research was not Pake's forte. He showed an exceptional gift for administration, becoming departmental chair at the age of 30 and eventually executive vice-chancellor and provost of the university.In 1970 the Xerox Corporation, the dominant maker of photocopying machines, was experiencing intense competition from Japanese manufacturers. The corporation decided to invest in a research facility to generate new products to reduce its dependence on the ageing technology of photocopiers. Pake was offered the position of research director, and he persuaded the company to create a "multidisciplinary Utopia" and locate it in Silicon Valley near Stanford University. Under his tenure, the Palo Alto Research Center - universally known as Xerox PARC - became a legend of computer history.Pake recruited computer scientists, psychologists and engineers to create "the architecture of information".

Some of the recruits were already leaders in their field, others became so. When he played "When Your Lover Has Gone" he added brass parts on the keyboard and he sounded like a big band.The Tony Lee Trio Live at the Station (2002) was the pianist's last album and features such standards as "All the Things You Are", "Laura", "Stomping at the Savoy" and a solo piano treatment of "Cry Me a River". Tony Archer, who plays on the album, says: We worked together for 40 years and he had a fantastic musical ear Tony never played like Errol Garner just for effect. He just loved that style and he was one of the few who could do it properly In fact he was so good you could hardly tell the difference. When Tony played, you never lost sight of the melody.Chris Welch. Dullah Omar was part of the African National Congress team in the negotiations for the end of white rule in South Africa.

With the end of apartheid in 1994, President Nelson Mandela appointed him Minister of Justice. Abdullah Mohamed Omar, lawyer and politician: born Cape Town 26 May 1934; Minister of Justice 1994-99, Minister of Transport 1999-2004; married 1962 Farida Ally (two sons, one daughter); died Cape Town 13 March 2004. He also handled the law which set up the Truth and Reconciliation Committee whose work became the benchmark for societies emerging from tyranny in other parts of the world. In 1999 he was appointed Transport Minister by President Thabo Mbeki.Abdullah Mohamed Omar was born in Cape Town in 1934. As a small boy, I used to walk a mile every weekday afternoon to "cheder" (Hebrew school) from my home in the Cape Town suburb of Observatory.