James Calvin Armstrong, Jr., 60, of Tiberon, CA, died of natural causes on June 18, 2021. He is survived by his sister, Lillian Armstrong of Cape May Court House, NJ, and his loving friend and close companion, Harmony Niles and her daughter, Journey, of San Francisco, CA. He was predeceased by his parents, James C. and Valentine Armstrong, of Cape May Court House, NJ. He will be remembered fondly by his aunt and uncle, Jean and William Armstrong of Parkersburg, WV, and his cousins Carole Duym, Marcie Tolley, and Lori Batchelor, and his friends around the world.
James was born in Washington, DC, and spent his early childhood in Hyattsville and Lanham, MD and Morris Plains, NJ before his family settled in Mendham, NJ, where he graduated from West Morris Mendham High School in 1978. He then entered Duke University where he received a B.A. in computer science in 1982. James attended graduate school at University of St. Andrews in Scotland and later at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, receiving graduate degrees in 1984 and 2006, respectively.
James started his software engineering career at AT&T in 1984 but found the allure of Silicon Valley too enticing and moved to the Bay Area to begin a series of lead software engineering jobs at companies including Netscape, Glam, Twitter, and Snowflake. He was Snowflake’s 19th employee and was part of the team that (virtually) rang the bell on the New York Stock Exchange following the company’s initial public offering in September 2020.
However, Duke Basketball was never far from James’s heart, and in his spare time for a decade, he served as the Chief Technology Officer and Alpha Geek for the Duke Basketball Report, where he developed the original database and bulletin board system that was enjoyed by over a million visitors a day during the college basketball season.
James authored several books on UNIX during his life and he was a speaker on UNIX at industry conferences. His first foray into publishing, however, was The Doctor Who Program Guide, which he co-authored in 1989, much to the surprise of exactly no one who knew him.
James had an extraordinary mind for details, history, and solving complex puzzles. He held three patents on secure network management and connecting managed networks. He was also an avid reader, an accomplished nature photographer, a supreme cook, an avid birder, and a world traveler. James was known for his long trip reports following his travels, which were also filled with beautiful photographs, birding reports and detailed food reviews.
James had recently retired from Snowflake and was planning to travel the world extensively upon receiving a kidney transplant. These past months, he had been taking joy in sitting on his patio with a good book and listening to the birds.
A Life Celebration is planned for 2 – 8 pm on Nancy and John Venezia’s patio in San Mateo, CA. Please contact Nancy at venezia528@gmail.com to RSVP and receive the address. In lieu of flowers, please consider the organizations James cared about: The Kidney Project at UCSF, the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory (where he had volunteered his time), the Nature Conservancy, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) entries
Sign the guestbook.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.