The Digester

Turing Award winner and former Oxford professor Tony Hoare died on 5 March 2026 aged 92; he is remembered for quicksort, Hoare logic and a long influence on programming and formal methods, as recalled by Jim Miles.

Tony Hoare died on 5 March 2026 at the age of 92; he was born on 11 January 1934.
Hoare is best known for inventing quicksort and for major contributions to programming languages and formal methods, including ALGOL and Hoare logic.
He won the Turing Award and served as a professor at Oxford during a long academic career.
The famous quicksort wager at Elliott Brothers was confirmed by Hoare, who said he was paid the sixpence and had still implemented the slower algorithm first.
Jim Miles, who met Hoare in Cambridge, recalls his sharp memory, warm humour, Russian training during national service, early work demonstrating computers, and later time at Microsoft Cambridge.

Tony Hoare, creator of quicksort and Turing Award winner, dies aged 92

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