Brilliant, thoughtful and one who gave freely of his time and talents – this is how John Ehrman will be remembered by his fellow SHARE Members. He was a driving force for the organization, serving various key roles over 50 years, and passed away on Feb. 20, 2018.   

In his 50-year tenure, John was active on the Board of Directors (1972-1974), manager of the Assembler Project, and IBM representative to the Fortran Project.

John was best known among the SHARE community for his depth of knowledge in the Assembler language and his commitment to sharing that knowledge with others. Michael Stack, SHARE volunteer and former Director, who had worked with John since the 1970s, recalls a time when John’s commitment to teaching shone through:

“My most interesting work with John began around 2000, when he suggested that SHARE needed an Assembler Language Boot Camp. That is, an understandable introduction to Assembler Language programming. He subsequently emailed me a brief description of five sessions, and from that, I created the slides we have since used for the sessions,” says Michael, who had been teaching Assembler programming at Northern Illinois University and helped form the boot camp sessions from those teachings.

“Working with John on this project was a pleasure because of his easygoing personality. Although I created the original slides, the end result was as much his edits as mine. The success of the boot camps could be measured by the number of best session awards the boot camp received,” Michael recalls, noting the collaboration between himself and John.

John’s passion for sharing knowledge at large is perhaps best seen through his work as a SHARE presenter. As one of the most active session presenters in SHARE history, John gave 260 presentations at 34 SHARE events. He also authored a textbook on the Assembler language for IBM Z^® System Servers that still serves as a preeminent resource for mainframe programmers.

In 2017, to acknowledge John’s incredible contributions to the organization, SHARE established the John R. Ehrman Award for Sustained Excellence in Technical Education, which recognizes a SHARE volunteer's outstanding contributions to the technical program and sharing of knowledge with fellow SHARE Members over an extended period of time.  

Michael recalls delivering news of the award with John, who was celebrating his 50th year with SHARE at that time. “When I called John to tell him about the award, I said, ‘John, SHARE has decided to create a new technical award in your name.’ His response was silence. After a few seconds, I said, ‘John?’ and he said, ‘There many more deserving ...’ To which I responded, ‘No, there aren’t.’ That was John Ehrman, deferential and mild-mannered, but brilliant and driven. SHARE and I are going to miss him.”

The award was presented for the first time at SHARE Sacramento this year, and was given to SHARE volunteers Robert Rannie and Cheryl Watson. Watch the introductory video to learn more about the award and John’s legacy.

There was also a side of John that perhaps not as many SHARE Members saw. “He was indeed a wonderful classical musician,” SHARE Member Anne Caluori recalls. And he had a clever sense of humor, as well. Anne shared a memory with us from 20 years ago that she will remember most fondly: 

“One Thursday night at SCIDS, as the Singalong crew was getting ready for our kickoff, John stopped by the piano and passed me some sheet music, with the instructions to check it out later. It turned out to be Craig Courtney's ‘A Musicological Journey Through the 12 Days of Christmas,’ a funny, quirky, elegant, erudite parody of the traditional carol. I marveled at its creativity, scope and clever humor, found a recording of the piece and laughed myself silly, all the while envying the expert parodist and thanking John for sharing this marvelous music with me. Over the past few days, I realized that the words I'd use to describe this music are the same I'd use for John: elegant, erudite, funny, ingenious, scholarly, clever, masterful, engaging. I found another recording this afternoon and listened again, seeing a grinning John Ehrman in my mind's eye—that's how I'll remember him.”