HAROLD KESTER: A Great Gift to GOD

Two score and ten years ago I came to this nation dedicated to learning American culture, its way of life and its commitment to Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

I came as a foreign exchange student under the American Field Service (AFS) International Scholarship Program.

Showing me the way was an American family in Seal Beach, California - the Kester-Bauchwitz family. On hand to help was a classy group of teenagers identified as the Huntington Beach-Marina High School Class of 1964. 

Leading the group was Harold Kester, the high school’s Student Body President who eventually graduated as Class Salutatorian.

On Saturday, July 26, 2014, HB-Marina HS Class ‘64 will be celebrating its 50^th Anniversary.  I will be attending the celebrations while Harold Kester will not because he cannot. He joined the Lord on March 15, 2005 at the age of 58.

Harold was my foster brother. He belonged to the Kester-Bauchwitz clan who hosted me for one school year. He was the reason why AFS assigned me to live with them. We shared the same interest in student leadership and academics.  I was also Student Body President in my Philippine high school, and graduated Class Valedictorian.

A few days before graduation, he asked me for help in writing his speech as Class Salutatorian. This was because I had written and delivered a Valedictory Address before. I told him, “It is better if you write it from your heart. But it would be remembered more if you quote a hit song or a famous poem.”

He delivered one of the most memorable speeches I have ever heard. He quoted Robert Frost:

            “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.


            But I have promises to keep,


            And miles to go before I sleep,


            And miles to go before I sleep.” 

He went to California State Long Beach University majoring in Math ignoring scholarship offers from other colleges. Then, he proceeded to face the challenges of day-to-day life in a dual world – analogue and digital.  He conquered both. For his achievements, California State Long Beach University honored him as “Alumnus of the Year” in 1993.

I am unsure whether Huntington Beach – Marina High School has ever honored him.  But on this 50^th Anniversary of HB-Marina HS Class ’64, in my own little way, I am paying tribute to HAROLD KESTER.

Harold was not only a Mathematician who knew how numbers tell stories, he became an expert in information technology combining the use of computers and software engineering that offered advances in our “Planet of the Apps”.

Converting data to information; from information to intelligence; and from intelligence to knowledge and education was a natural process for him.  But artificial intelligence using the heuristic knowledge approach and robotics is another story.

In one of my visits to his office in Del Mar, California, he demonstrated to me the wonders of artificial intelligence and the future of consumer electronics.

In 1984, he founded the Del Mar Group which developed SmarTrieve, a search-and-retrieval program for electronic publishing. Recognizing its immense capabilities, Compton’s NewMedia, owned by Encyclopedia Britannica, bought Harold’s group in 1990.

Harold became NewMedia’s chief scientist and founded Britannica’s La Jolla Research Laboratory. He developed the world’s first multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia and the first Internet-based encyclopedia.

My academic background and experience was following a different career path. But my exposure to Harold introduced me to a whole new world – the digital and electronic world.  That will have to be the subject of another article.

Nine years after being with Britannica, Harold joined Websense – a company that makes software used by large companies and the federal government to monitor and filter employees’ Internet use and protect against Web-based threats such as viruses and information theft.  Under his leadership, Websense produced the Explorer program, a Web-based browser reporting system that would allow an employer to check on an employee without having to ask its IT department to produce a report.

The contribution of Harold to the company was undeniable and significant. CEO John Carrington had recognized that Harold’s talents “made Websense what it is today.”

He emailed the employees, "Harold was never satisfied with existing ideas, or the current technology; he always knew he could do more,"

HAROLD KESTER: Amidst being an Excellent Software Engineer, a Creative Technology Pioneer, a Great Family Man, and an Efficient and Effective Management Leader; he was a Sharp Dresser, a Cool and Smooth Dancer, an Avid Sportsman, a Good Friend to many and most importantly, a Fun and Accommodating Foster Brother.

He will not be with us on Saturday, July 26, 2014. But as a Buddhist, he believed in Rebirth or Reincarnation - "the religious or philosophical concept that the soul or spirit, after biological death, begins a new life in a new body."  So he could be with us somehow!

In my religion, “What we are is a gift given to us by God. What we become is our gift to God.”  For what Harold had become, he was a great gift to God.