Olympic rower Andrew Sudduth,

[divingbrit]

July 20. 2006 8:00AM

Olympic rower Andrew Sudduth, who later helped develop server technology used by many internet providers, has died of pancreatic cancer at age 44.

Sudduth, who grew up in Exeter and lived in Stow, Mass., rowed on the eight-man team that won silver in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He rowed on eight national and Olympic teams in the 1980s and won medals four times at the World Rowing Championships. He also won singles sculling events in five separate Head of the Charles regattas.

"He was one of the best rowers in the United States and certainly one of the greatest Harvard oarsmen ever. He had quite an extraordinary record," Harvard men's rowing coach Harry Parker said.

Friends said he brought the same passion he had for rowing to computers. He set up the computer network for his junior high school in Exeter in the 1970s. While working in a Harvard computer lab in 1988, he was the first person to send out a major warning when a worm spread on the internet.

"He was technically one of the most brilliant people I ever worked with," said Brian Shorey, a friend who was Sudduth's boss at Cisco Systems Inc., where he worked until recently. "His mind went a mile a minute, and it was tough to keep up with him."
Sudduth was born in Baltimore and grew up in Exeter. He was diagnosed with cancer last fall and married for the second time in January. He died Saturday at his family's summer home in Marion, Mass.
"Being with Andy is like being with a lighthouse," said his wife, Ruth Kennedy. "When he's focused on you, the light is so brilliant. And when he's not, it's so dark because his focus was utter."
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on July 28 in Wickenden Chapel at Tabor Academy in Marion.