April 2, 2026
He lit the web—and a grill
George Goble died recently – known for first dual-CPU-Unix and fast BBQ lighting
Internet mourns the Purdue legend who lit a grill in 5 seconds
TLDR: George Harry Goble, a Purdue engineer and early computer pioneer, has died at 73. The internet is split between celebrating his serious tech legacy and gleefully reposting his legendary “5‑second” liquid‑oxygen grill video, with nostalgia, praise from former colleagues, and a few cheeky mix‑ups fueling the comments.
The web is saying goodbye to George Harry Goble—“GHG” to his friends—the Purdue engineer and early computer pioneer who also went viral before “viral” was even a thing. His obituary paints a life of serious innovation: helping build early UNIX systems (think: the operating system behind Macs and iPhones’ ancestors), wiring up big university computers, and even streaming a solar eclipse back when “web video” sounded like sci‑fi. But the comments? They’re a firestorm—literally.
The top memory being passed around is the infamous clip of Goble igniting a charcoal grill with liquid oxygen in what looks like five seconds flat. One user drops the YouTube link like a mic, while another posts a mirror of his quirky home page featuring the grill video and his “TWINKIES experiments” here. Old‑school fans get misty-eyed about discovering that video on Usenet (the pre‑Reddit of the internet), and a former student calls him “an amazing boss” who literally drove around with a UNIX license plate.
Cue the drama: some are pleading “remember the engineer, not just the stunt,” while others argue the wild BBQ moment is exactly why he reached folk-hero status. There’s even a cheeky mix‑up with the 1950s TV comedian George Gobel—instantly corrected by the peanut gallery. Through it all, the mood is equal parts reverence and grinning nostalgia for a guy who made serious tech—and a backyard grill—look thrilling. Don’t try that barbecue trick at home; do remember the legend who could light up both a lab and the internet.
Key Points
- •George Harry “GHG” Goble, a Purdue engineer and UNIX expert, died on March 18, 2026, at age 73.
- •He was a founding member of Purdue’s Engineering Computer Network (ECN) and spent his career there until retirement.
- •Purdue University honored him in 2022 as an Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Fellow.
- •His innovations included connecting DEC VAX systems for parallel processing, creating PNET, early web video broadcasting, and an early mobile email demo.
- •He worked on refrigeration technologies (including R-406A) and co-developed an aluminum-based hydrogen fuel system demonstrated at Purdue in 2006.