Homer Wilson Smith

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Homer Wilson Smith, 71, of Ithaca. COVID-19 claimed his life on December 23, 2022. Homer was born April 21, 1951 in Manhattan, New York, the only child of Homer William Smith and Margaret Wilson Smith. After the sudden death of his parents, Homer was orphaned at the age of 11, he spent the rest of his childhood in the home of Nell and Irving Sarnoff, his aunt and uncle. It was while attending The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut that Homer first encountered the technology that would spark his life-long passion for deep metaphysical connections and the pursuit of a cosmic reality. Computers and the programming language APL, an advanced array language developed by Dr. Kenneth E. Iversen, forever changed the course of his life. To Homer’s scientific, mathematical, and musical talent was added a rare, creative gift for computer engineering that eventually brought him to Cornell University. Homer graduated with a BS in electrical engineering in 1973 and made Ithaca his home. Homer’s friends still remember the time spent in Uris Hall’s computer room, the great discoveries made each day. Homer founded Art Matrix in 1983, an independent research group and business that sold postcards and videos of fractals, www.artmatrix.com. This project grew out of Homer’s work with John Hubbard, a Cornell mathematician who proved one of the important theorems about the Mandelbrot set. A Scientific American cover article in August 1985, “DIY Fractals: Exploring the Mandelbrot Set on a Personal Computer,” led to thousands of requests for images of the set, and Homer had already been producing stunning fractal images for Hubbard’s research. Homer was considered a hero not only because he hoped the fractal images would attract children to mathematics and the possibilities of education—he was the only person who could get the IBM 370, the backbone of Cornell computing in those days, to do any useful work. Homer was a Renaissance man, a visionary who saw the internet’s boundless potential and himself became an internet service provider. He was the founder and CEO of Art Matrix-Lightlink, another business he operated until his dying day with his long-time partner, Jane E. Staller. Homer was a profoundly philosophical person. His greatest love was metaphysics and the nature of consciousness. He devoted countless hours to intellectual pursuits, which he called "fighting war," and wrote many essays that can be read at www.homerwsmith.com. In an effort to understand the AllThatIs, Homer was inspired to create his own religion and so did. He called his religion ADORE: A Divine Operating Religion of Excellence. The ADORE text, written in poetic form, is posted at www.adore.com. Homer will be missed by many: those who respected him, fought with him, and loved him—including his many cats. Although no memorial service is planned at this time, all kindly thoughts are appreciated. GoFundMe link: https://gofund.me/c0d55cff