Jonathan B. Postel (1943-1998) was one of the original designers of the Internet. He worked together with Internet legend Vint Cerf as part of a group of graduate students working for Prof. Leonard Kleinrock on the ARPANET project, the ground breaking packet switching network which later evolved into today's Internet.

He played a key role in the development of many of the most fundamental Internet protocols, including the Domain Name System, File Transfer, and Telnet; He authored the specifications for the Internet Protocol (IP), and the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). For years, Postel quietly made sure that every every Internet protocol had a unique identifier. This indispensable task was performed quietly and effectively.

He received his B.S. in Engineering (1966) and M.S. in Engineering (1968) , and his Ph.D. in Computer Science (1974) from UCLA and served on the Internet Society Board of Trustees.

After graduating from UCLA Postel worked with two local private companies before joining the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 where he was to spend the next 21 years. Beginning as a researcher, at the time of his death, Postel was the Director of USC's ISI Computer Networks Division.

The First Request For Comments (RFC) Editor

When a member of the original ARPANET research project team, Steve Crocker, invented the idea of the Request for Comments (RFC) series, Postal became the first editor. He began the activities and pursued them until his death and became "Mr. RFC".

His legacy is an organized collection of of edited documents that tell the history of the Internet, not only the technical side by the but also the poetic and humorous (some of the April 1st RFCs are as amusing today as when they were issued).
 

What is a Request For Comments (RFC)? (quoted from RFC #1594) The Request for Comments documents (RFCs) are working notes of the Internet research and development community.  A document in this series may be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and may be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard. Most RFCs are the descriptions of network protocols or services, often giving detailed procedures and formats for their  implementation.  Other RFCs report on the results of policy studies or summarize the work of technical committees or workshops.  All RFCs are considered public domain unless explicitly marked otherwise.

Dr. Postel's involvement with the development of the Internet was both broad and deep. He was integrally involved in several Internet infrastructure activities including the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and guardian of the ".us" Top Level  Domain.

He was a founding member of the Internet Architecture Board and served continuously from its founding to the present. He was the very first individual member of the Internet Society. Among his honors, Postel received the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunication Union - normally reserved for Heads of State - at INET '98 for his central role in the success story of the Internet.
 

Jon Postel's oft quoted statement on robust protocol design: "Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from  others."

His contributions to science and engineering were many and wide, including protocol design and verification, multimedia computing and communications, electronic commerce, the domain name system, and many specific Internet protocols.

Postel  is widely known for the influence he exerted on the management of the Internet. Very early, Jon recognized that packet-switching research would need organization and a modicum of discipline if it were to realize its full potential as a universal communication medium.

From the very earliest stages of the Internet, Postel was central and vital to the activities that eventually grew into the RFC Editor, which issues and controls the many documents that specify how Internet computers interoperate. He also initiated Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is the central coordination function for the global Internet.

As the Internet has taken on greater economic importance, the standards documented in the RFCs have become more important and the RFCs more formal.

Hiding in the history of the RFCs is the history of human institutions for achieving cooperative work.
 

From a testimonial to Jon Postel by Vint Cerf, the recognized "Father of the Internet": Out of the chaos of new ideas for communication, the experiments, the tentative designs, and crucible of testing, there emerged a cornucopia of networks. ... Someone had to keep track of all the protocols, the identifiers, networks and addresses and ultimately the names of all the things in the networked universe. And someone had to keep track of all the information that erupted with volcanic force from the intensity of the debates and discussions and endless invention that has continued unabated for 30 years. That someone was Jonathan B. Postel, our Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, friend, engineer, confidant, leader, icon, and now, first of the giants to depart from our midst.

It is doubtful that the RFCs would be the quality body of material they are today were it not for Postel's devotion to them from the very start. Postel sensed that it would be important to have documentation of what was done and why, and he used this mechanism to try to capture the debate for the benefit of future networkers and designers.

Postel cared deeply about the process of disseminating information and establishing a methodology for working in a networking environment. In the spirit of  "Internet for Everyone" none of the RFCs were ever restricted or classified, no mean feat when since they were funded by the United Stated Department of Defense during the Cold War.