Greg McIlhiney

Greg McIlhiney
November 14, 1950 – June 8, 2008

A beloved friend to countless people whose lives he touched in the South Bay Area for decades will be missed beyond words by the many, many lives Greg touched throughout the course of a life that ended far too soon.

Greg grew up in Los Altos, graduating from Awalt High School in 1969. Shortly thereafter, Greg served our country in the Vietnam War. Upon returning from the war, Greg earned a degree in political science from Cal-State University Chico in 1975. For several years after graduation, Greg owned his own contracting business, specializing in installing skylights throughout the late 1970’s and early 80’s, hence his business’ name, “The Skylighter”.

Where Greg left his mark, however, was when – “way back” in the mid-80’s – he decided to take a computer course up at Foothill College. From there, a star was born. Greg ended up working his way up from being in charge of various labs to becoming a full-time tenured professor of various Information Technology courses at Foothill. Greg was a respected expert in Flash and HTML technology, and even did several consulting jobs at local tech powerhouses, including Genentech in South San Francisco.

Greg’s passions in life included all-things high-tech, especially when it came to products being made by Apple. He once called himself an “Apple Evangelist”, and one could witness this fact when viewing his license-plate frame, which read: “Blah, Blah, Blah…..Get a Mac”. Greg’s other main passion in life was golf, and we are pleased to know in our hearts that he simply must have a fantastic seat for this weekend’s U.S. Open down in San Diego.

Greg is survived by his loving sister, Joan Keller of San Jose, two nieces Katie and Christina, best friend of 50-plus years Bruce Durham of Fair Oaks, CA and countless friends from his days at Awalt. It would be difficult to even begin to quantify the number of students that Greg helped launch into careers in Information Technology. He was always so pleased when he would get a call from Google, HP, Yahoo! – or any of our big tech firms – looking for a reference for a former student of his. Rest in peace, dear Greg, you were loved by countless friends and family and your career touched the lives of countless more. We love you.

Donations may be made in honor of Greg McIlhiney to Foothill College, c/o CTIS Department, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022