The news of Professor Rajeev Motwani’s untimely death on Friday afternoon spread quickly throughout the couple of hundred attendees of tonight’s TechFellow event in San Francisco. The mood of the event turned from cheerful cocktail sipping banter to stunned silence.
Most everyone who was there is his friend. And most everyone there had a story to tell about how Motwani had helped them at one time or another, asking nothing in return. I have a couple of those stories myself.
Ron Conway, a long time friend of Motwani, was visibly shaken. We asked Ron to make a few remarks to honor Motwani before the event started. His talk was not scripted or prepared. He was in a state of shock before, during and after his talk. And it clearly came directly from the heart. He talked about a man who loved entrepreneurs and who would meet with anyone to at least give them advice. Motwani influenced hundreds of entrepreneurs and students, Conway said, and never refused a meeting. We’ve included the video of Conway’s tribute to Motwani above.
Google founder Sergey Brin, who describes Motwani as his “friend and teacher,” also wrote a tribute on his blog:
Remembering Rajeev
It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. In fact, I have been doing some research for what I thought would be my next post.
Unfortunately, life does not always give you the luxury to plan what may be close to your heart next. It is with great sadness that I write about the passing of my teacher and good friend Professor Rajeev Motwani. But I would rather not dwell on the sorrow of his death and instead celebrate his life.
Officially, Rajeev was not my advisor, and yet he played just as big a role in my research, education, and professional development. In addition to being a brilliant computer scientist, Rajeev was a very kind and amicable person and his door was always open. No matter what was going on with my life or work, I could always stop by his office for an interesting conversation and a friendly smile.
When my interest turned to data mining, Rajeev helped to coordinate a regular meeting group on the subject. Even though I was just one of hundreds of graduate students in the department, he always made the time and effort to help. Later, when Larry and I began to work together on the research that would lead to Google, Rajeev was there to support us and guide us through challenges, both technical and organizational.
Eventually, as Google emerged from Stanford, Rajeev remained a friend and advisor as he has with many people and startups since. Of all the faculty at Stanford, it is with Rajeev that I have stayed the closest and I will miss him dearly. Yet his legacy and personality lives on in the students, projects, and companies he has touched. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.
Goodbye, Rajeev. You will be missed. What a sad, sad day.
he will be sorely missed. Silicon Valley pauses.
i’m actually glad that so many of us were together tonight at the event when we first heard about this. So many stories over dinner about what he has done for this community. So many toasts in his honor.
in times of sad reflection, it is good to surrounded by so many friends, both his and ours.
Ron’s tribute was poignant and meaningful. i’m only sorry i didn’t get to know Rajeev a little better before he passed on.
makes you realize how short the time is we all have… best make something of it.
Agreed Dave: making the best and savoring what is around us..
makes you think about the big picture in life – what does “rich” mean… creating …has many meaning – creating wealth isn’t the only thing entrepreneurship is about – creating value in all areas of life
Rajeev was a rich (life-rich) man. He helped people of all kinds from billionaires to entrepreneurs in the trenches.
A truly great Indian and cosmopolitan in the truest sense of the word … a true citizen of the world.
Professor, rest in peace
I hadn’t heard so much about Rajeev but looks like he was a gem of a person.
I also liked what Sergey Brin mentioned at the beginning of his blog
“But I would rather not dwell on the sorrow of his death and instead celebrate his life.”
There is something special about all these great men. I am glad that the world still has a lot of them who keeps steering humanity and make them achieve phenomenal stuff which most of us mortals can’t even think of.
A toast to Life
Hard to beleive. I just saw him couple of days ago on University ave. He was my professor at Stanford not too long ago. A great mentor and good guy. he will be missed. A loss for the valley.
Touching.
my humble tribute to Rajeev Motwani.. May his sole rest in peace. India is also grieving on the death of her great son. Had read a lot about him… especially how he helped larry and sergey during the initial google dayz… it is a sad day.
RIP Rajeev Motwani
rest in peace
what happened to him? how did he die? was he ill?
a swimming pool accident at home
His death is a big loss for entrepreneurs, I don’t know him but after this post I did research about him and he was very kind and nice person, May his sole rest in peace, any idea what happened to him?
Have read a lot about his contributions. Sad news.
I never met him in person. yet, I found myself utterly despondent when I first heard the news. There are few people in this world whose loss would so sorely be missed despite never having known him personally.
A truly sad day.
http://weesil.mybrute.com
Thoughts and wishes with the Motwani family during this hard time. Rajeev will be missed.
I had met Rajeev once, and was really awed by his brilliance. This comes as a big shock.
May his soul rest in peace.
Very sad day. As Ron says, hopefully we can all learn from someone that was so great, so smart and still remained humble. Our prayers go out to the Matwani family. RIP Rajeev. Jai Shri Om.
Agreed Mike – yesterday was a shocker.. Rajeev was a cool guy and friend to all entrepreneurs…
For all “Jedi” computer scientists, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalist, there was a deep disturbance in the “entrepreneurship force” yesterday.
http://www.sili...om/ver2/?p=5506
OK, Enough of this R.I.P. crap.
How’s that Palm Pre?
Anyone? Anyone?
troll
fuck you
Very cold…but your are missing the probability that he had a hand in the Pre as well. It would not surprise me. The faculty on The Farm have a reach that goes beyond the borders of this country. This is really sad.
It is very sad. However, his shadow is long enough to touch generations.
really sad news
R.I.P Rajeev, even though I never met him, I love him for his book on “finite automata”.
It is very sad news.This is biggest loss in Silicon Valley.Entire World’s tech founders are in loss of Rajeev.may god bless peace for his tech soul.
Lost a great friend and a great IITK Alum. We were engaged in 3 startups together. Will miss his brilliance and friendship.
Deepak
I can’t believe this… the morning that this happened, I just took the final exam for the theory course he taught this quarter. Aside from all of his influence in silicon valley, his course was probably the most well taught of any I’ve taken at Stanford.
Rest in Peace Motwani
I am sad to know this, but may God give you a special place up there…
I don’t know him personally, but I remember that I asked him if he would like to look into our stupid business plan and tell his opinion after getting his jaxtr number and mail id from the jaxtr about page… To my surprise he had replied that he’d look into it… Damn we never made it! Damn he is gone!
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 21:38:15 -0800
From: “Rajeev Motwani”
Sender: motwani@gmail.com
To: XXXice@gmail.com
Subject: Fwd: New jaxtr text message
Send me a summary of the plan and the team — I will see what I can do.
Rajeev
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: jaxtr messenger
Date: Dec 8, 2007 9:27 PM
Subject: New jaxtr text message
To: rajeev@cs.stanford.edu
Here is your text message from a visitor [XXXice@gmail.com]
—-
Hello Rajeev, I would be glad to have to have some guidance from you. My
team is building an OS with social compute sharing. I would like to have
your opinion. Kind Regards, Robert
—-
To reply just click or go to
http://www.jaxt...sp?msgid=707528.
Sent by jaxtr, 855 Oak Grove, Suite 100, Menlo Park, California 94025.
————-
He must have been a great man with a good heart to look into the plans of geeks like us…
Rest in Peace Motwani
I am sad to know this, but may God give you a special place up there…
I don’t know him personally, but I remember that I asked him if he would like to look into our stupid business plan and tell his opinion after getting his jaxtr number and mail id from the jaxtr about page… To my surprise he had replied that he’d look into it… Damn we never made it! Damn he is gone!
Rajeev Motwani – We will miss you…very very much.
My Tribute to you – http://tinyurl.com/n65t4p
I am deeply saddened by this tragic, but believe those great memories of the past may eventually brings back some comfort: I still vividly remember the many meetings we had in his office in 1991 when I was a postdoc at Xerox PARC and when he was a junior professor at Stanford. Marshall Bern and I often stopped by his office after visiting the Stanford library. Rajeev was a great man: brilliant yet humble.
Its a tragic loss…I knew him from reading his books…he was a great man…may his soul rest in peace and its brilliance brighten the world
What actually happened to him? How did he pass away?
very sad news, R.I.P
RIP Rajeev. I met Rajeev in the very early days of Chegg and he was very helpful and gave us great feedback. It was amazing how down to earth he was. He will be missed…
Rajeev was instrumental in getting me to change the direction of my last startup Widcomm to a more software focus. Also helped me visualize some of the directions for RockeTalk.
Rajeev : We will miss you dearly!
My deepest condolences for the visionary…:(
R I P Rajeev, i feel really bad that I dint not know anything about this great person. Is there some link where we can just browse through such great people and read what they have contributed to humanity.
It’s very sad news
Rajeev and I were in grad school at Berkeley at the same time – he in CS and myself next door in Material Science. Its hard to imagine that he’s no more. In the two decades since we graduated its amazing to see how much he has given to so many people. My heart goes out his family. RIP
This is a huge tragedy. My condolences to his family and friends.
Thank you Rajeev for everything.
Rajeev is a great Professor. He will be missed by all of us.
May his soul rest in Peace.
Balaji Sundararajan,
Cisco Systems
very sad…
I am saddened by his sudden demise. Though I did not meet him, I read his books and papers.
I came to know about this while reading today news.
I don’t know about him earlier. it is great loss to the tech field…R.I.P ..May Meher baba bless him..
I first heard of him when I read his book on finite automata….I read more about him and he has proved himself to be a genius….God bless his family…
I hope the prayers from his countless fans and well wishers give his family the strength to overcome this loss.
Only 47 years of age.
A short influential life.
Strange that one drowns in his own swimming pool.
I really feel very sorry and sad on the demise of Rajeev Motwani.If I had known him before I would have just tried to meet him and ask him to advise my son at Stanford for his valuable guidence.
Every death of someone close to us is very saddening. It’s at this moment that we realise just how valuable our life is & that we should make the most of our lives. But then we get back to our daily rut.
If you are now 33 & live to 70, you only have 13331 days left to live ! Let’s really make the most of them.
Afterall, what matters in life at the end of the day, coz the end “will” come one day, are the EXPERIENCES we have with FOLKS/FRIENDS/FAMILY.
Rajeev helped many and will be missed.
JD