Toolsmith

Fred Brooks, ACM Allen Newell Award acceptance speech:

Any thing which has to call itself a science isn’t. By this criterion, physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy may be sciences; political science, military science, social science, and computer science are not.

We make things that do not themselves directly satisfy human needs, but which others use in making things that enrich human living. In a word, the computer scientist is a toolsmith—no more, but no less. It is an honorable calling.

You will be missed.