Gabor always thought that his invention was destined for creativity (along with all the more measurable, practical and sometimes salable avenues it developed into),  but it was Rudie who helped highlight just how creative it could be. Along with his peers who pushed the boundaries of the medium in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, he established a benchmark.

I remember interviewing Rudie in New York some time in early 1981, during my Fulbright Scholarship at the Museum of Holography.  He was incredibly generous with his comments and insight.

What was fascinating was his clear understanding that what he was doing deserved a degree of respect from the creative establishment.  For some that smacked of arrogance, but it was based on the premise that all work should be treated with respect.  It was a time when people were incredibly excited about holography.

When I asked him how he did what he did (the actual technical process involved in creating something like his seminal piece 12mW Boogie) there was an immediate response, coached with a smile.  If he told me that then I’d be able to reproduce his technique which would undermine his own work and sales.  I found that shocking, having been ‘brought up’ for the past 5 years in an excited university environment where art and technology offered the promise of new areas of research and a possible new aesthetic.  Sharing cutting edge discoveries was a prerequisite.  But in holography, this was a time of ‘possession’ and keeping techniques close to the chest, just in case the phenomenon became ‘big’ and you missed out on the millions.

I thought he was wrong.  I had no desire to reproduce what he did, (as much as I admired it), I had my own questions to ask.  Later I began to understand what he meant.  He did protect his ‘technique’ for many years, but actually it wasn’t really an issue.  There are hundreds of Berkhout look-alike works which neither display the power, soul nor integrity of the originals which inspired them.  There will always be pale reproductions of any pioneering work and some of them will be made with a respectful passion, but in the end a Berkhout is a Berkhout – something we can learn from, feast on and remember with enthusiasm – like the man who made them.

‘Blazing a trail’ is a bland platitude thrown in the direction of many, but in Rudie’s case it was true.  He scorched a path and set his standards high.  In a field which was happy to reproduce the ‘object’ as a demonstration of a remarkable holographic effect, Rudie chose the ephemeral, the condensed and the sensitivity which is only manifest in a balanced work which explores light in its own terms.

He had a quiet calm, and an intense commitment.  He will be sadly missed.

Andrew Pepper
apepper.com

A year after his untimely death, this digital memorial is launched to offer an online venue for those who knew him, so that they can share their memories.

Steve has already been honoured through formal tributes and dedications. Here we are opening a new chapter – one which can offer an ongoing global tribute. Not everyone feels comfortable attempting to formalise their memories, some need time to let those memories ’stabilise’ after the sadness of November 2003.

Jean-Marc, Kaveh and myself hope that this space will encourage you to share some of your personal thoughts about Steve and the way he influenced an incredibly wide group of professionals around the world.

We welcome your reminiscences of someone who helped stimulate our visual, academic, business and social world. Please keep them to around 200 words and bear with us if it takes a while for them to be included.

Andy Pepper

My favorite memory of Steve was the following conference when I gave a paper on the multi-camera capture system in his session. After what I thought was a shaky presentation, I was terrified of the questions that may come my way and of course Steve was not going to let me off the hook easy as he inquired about issues of image magnification at the extreme camera positions, then smiled at me and said to the group, “well I am glad that someone just went out and did this”.

I will always cherish my times of working with Steve, the years at the Media lab collaborating with the fantastic team of students that Steve would always pull together has given me quite a standard with which to measure the ongoing years of my work. I mean that is the point, just go out and do it…

IN3D, Director Stereoscopic Products
steven.smith@inddd.com
www.inddd.com

One of the communities in which Steve was extraordinarily active and astonishingly influential is the world of holography. Kaveh has proposed a new way to celebrate Steve Benton’s life and career, where anyone who knew Professor Benton could post some shared memories on this web site, under the sole condition that the writings be reviewed and accepted by the editors, i.e. yours truly and Andy Pepper.

What will come out of this sort of virtual memorial wall is obviously not clear. At the very least, this website provides a forum for people to contribute their personal memories of Steve. Moreover, this virtual memorial wall would allow friends and colleagues to recollect moments shared with Steve and perhaps reflect on some of Steve’s special personal qualities that affected all of us.

Contributions should be short, and, obviously courteous. Contributors should not attempt to use this memorial to try to frame a complete or definitive vision of Steve’s achievements.

Many documents have already contributed to celebrate Steve’s influence on science, on research, on technology, and on people. Steve himself participated in the framing of the “BentonVision” event so well organized at MIT on November 11, 2003. Steve meant this event to be a shared gift for all of us. The very essence of what should be said and remembered in this website has also been written by his wife, Jeanne Benton, in the SPIE issue of Practical Holography dedicated to Steve Benton (Proceeding vol. # 5290). Recently I spoke with Jeanne about what she thought the essence of a memorial website should reflect. “The real memorial already exists”, she said, “Steve’s students and colleagues living interesting and challenging lives in science is the best memorial Steve could have. What the website might contribute is an opportunity for the community at large to come together. Steve would have really liked that.”

Let’s keep this in mind when you submit a note for the web site.

Jean-Marc Fournier

How could that be.. Stephen had made my first semester at MIT exciting: I got to play with lasers and make holograms and it actually fulfilled a major requirement (Institute Lab Class). That was cool. Much cooler than what most other Freshmen were doing in class. He had read my first lab report at the end of the semester, which a little more engineering education later made me realize that it read more like a transcript of a live TV show, sprinkled with optics. I was so naive as to take the instructions literally: report how the lab was going – along with mishaps and excited expressions (like: “oh no!”) . I do hope it made him smile a little. He gave me my first job coz I had a knack for optics – when I couldn’t even write a single line of code. I remember filling in my timecard for my first paycheck. He was always ready with support, advice, and a smile; never a hint of hierarchy. How could he be gone, now?

How could I have missed it? It’s all over the Internet… It took a meeting between a Lebanese and Philipino in a laundry room in Southern Germany.. what are the odds . One thinks good people will live forever, and time flies.

Stephen was a great man, not just in his scientific abilities but mainly for me – a 17 year old first semester freshman, continents away from home for the first time ever, being eaten alive by MIT – he was amazing in his humanity. The world looks slightly dimmer to me now.

Software Engineer, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
rkhalaf@us.ibm.com

I think that shared ‹grin›, across thousands of miles, was the most exceptional moment of my career. I miss the guy…

Former Chief Engineer at Holovision
Head of Cybernetics at McDonnell Douglas
Jonadark/StellarTechnologies

Although these passages should not need much editing, we are happy that two well known figures in the science and art of holography, namely Jean-Marc Fournier and Andy Pepper have agreed to act as editors for this memorial page. So please contribute, and mail your memories to bentonpage@holographer.org. Kindly remember to include your name and any afilliation.

Now is time to remember Steve, it’s a time when many deadlines for the next Practical Holography conference are passing. A time when we would have collaborated on the conference and dealt with the many decision that have to be made. Time I had enjoyed with him by email and on the telephone.

I’ve known Steve since the day he presented his seminal paper on what was later called “rainbow” holography. He had never missed a single conference held in Lake Forest and was an enthusiastic supporter on the short practical holography courses taught before each conference.

I truly miss Steve, more than ever, both as a friend and a colleague.

Professor Emeritus, Lake Forest College
jeong@LFC.edu
www.lakeforest.edu

We first met in 1976 at the Conference on Holography in Ulyanovsk (Russia) were Steve reported on rainbow holography. Although most of my Soviet colleagues were the adherents of Denisyuk reflection holography, Steve’s impressive results prompted several groups in Russia to change their mind and move into the rainbow world. It was interesting though to see Steve’s reaction to the high-quality “Russian” holograms shown in a small exhibition at this conference. Later on when we met in Kiev, at the SPIE meeting for Holography in 1989, he confessed how much he was impressed. It was during that Kiev meeting I discovered something I didn’t know about Steve before – his profound knowledge of, and interest in, art and culture, especially ancient. During a museum tour the ‘tortured’ guide had to spend twice as much time responding to Steve’s questions and comments on the unique artefacts from the museum collection.”

Vice President; Director of Applied Optics Group
MetroLaser, Inc
www.metrolaserinc.com

Director, Center for the Holographic Arts, NY
holocenter@mindspring.com
www.holocenter.com