At Jeff Byers burial service, John Petersen shared these thoughts:

I first met Jeff at SEMATECH. He first struck me (and later my wife Rae) as impish and that brought to mind:
“What revell rout
Is kept about,
In every corner where I goe,
I will o’er see,
And merry be,
And make good sport with a ho, ho, ho!”

These words about Shakespeare’s Puck well describe my first impressions of Jeff.

Story: For instance, we had a great time doing stuff, I mean science, in the lab. One time we made videos of wafers developing in attempt to extract the dissolution behavior. It kind of worked but it was mostly fun setting up our movie studio.

Another time I will always remember: We were in Jeff’s cubicle working on his computer. The guy across the hall (who maybe is here today but I don’t know) was ease-dropping on our work. All of sudden Jeff while typing madly turned and watched the guy while continuing to talk to me (and typing). During this time, he hacked into the guy’s computer, took it over and typed in no uncertain terms to mind his own business. (This impressed me at many levels: the ability to do the hacking; the ability to touch type and send commands without looking – I’m just a hunt-and-peck kind of guy; the ability to talk normally and intelligently about the project during all this other activity.)

This view (of the imp) was never lost.

+ Jeff loved life
+ Jeff loved friends
+ Jeff loved his family
+ Jeff loved Carita

He loved to share and to collaborate.

As Jeff and I grew from colleagues, to friends, to brothers. I learned, like Puck, Jeff’s prerogative to utter the TRUTH that no one else will speak.

It was the collaborative search for these truths that endeared him to me and to the people who knew him. It is what made him great!

Hand-in-hand with his fierce Love he had hate. He railed against all forms of tyranny, rejecting all dogmas: religious, economic and corporate (all things that inhibited thought and created hurt).

Story: For instance, I would come to his office and he would bring up the web page showing the profits and money in the bank for his employer. Stabbing at the page he would say four billion in the bank and they are laying people off. I quit! And he did!

+ Jeff sought knowledge
+ Jeff sought community
+ Jeff sought justice
And in the end I believe Jeff ultimately sought peace.

It is this pursuit that made him a tireless man of action:
Jeff was
+ Scholarship in-action
+ Mind in-action
+ Justice in-action
And I would say, though he would (probably) deny it:
+ Grace in-action

We can all be happy, proud and humbled to know Jeff.

I urge you all to look at Jeff’s legacy:
+ Look to Yak Farm
+ Look to his community
+ Look at his work.

I grieve our loss, my loss.

Jeff I Love you.