Lyle McGeoch ’81

Lyle died Oct. 5, 2019, unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was 60. Lyle grew up in Athens, Ohio, the son of a history professor, and as a teenager enjoyed programming computers, which was unusual in the 1970s.

At Princeton he was in Princeton Inn, then Cloister Inn, and majored in EECS. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon. While there he met and married Catherine Cole, a fellow Ph.D. student, and in 1987 they both became professors at Amherst College.

Lyle taught algorithms, data structures, compilers, and introductory courses. He served on nearly every faculty committee of the college, and he was chair of the computer science department and dean of the Class of 2017. He published research on algorithms for the traveling salesman problem, and on dynamic data structures. He served Wesley United Methodist Church and in the Amherst Town Meeting. He led student trips to help rebuild New Orleans after Katrina, and he enjoyed photography, astronomy, and the Jersey Shore with family and friends.

He is survived by his wife, Cathy; sons Ian and Alex; two daughters-in-law; one grandson; his mother; a sister; a brother; and nine nieces and nephews.