¶®É«µÛ

The ¶®É«µÛ banner is flying at half-mast from October 18 - 21, 2021 in remembrance of Larry McCann, Senior System Administrator with Information Services and Technology.

Larry McCann

It is with great sadness that I share with you the news of the passing of Larry McCann. Larry passed away on August 30th, 2021. I speak on behalf of all our staff, and everyone that had the opportunity to work with him, when I say that we will all miss Larry, his contributions, and his commitment to IST and the ¶®É«µÛ. 

Larry McCann’s history with the U of A goes back to when IST used to be called UCS, then we transitioned into CNS, and then AICT. He began work on campus as an MTS mainframe consultant and then worked as a Solaris system reseller that enabled university users and departments to set up Solaris systems on campus.

He then became Team Lead for Teaching and Learning IT services. This team was instrumental in implementing technology such as synchronous learning systems, including the U of A’s first LMS system and various other collaboration solutions.

Larry joined AICT Managed Services in 2008 — as a result of Teaching and Learning’s IT services transition — along with Greg Dostatni and Hardave Riar. His team supported the WebCT LMS system that was used campus-wide. He had an abundance of leadership experience and Unix knowledge that was much needed at the time. Larry was an integral part of transitioning our LMS system to Moodle. As well, he continued to support many campus groups that used Sunsites hosting service. He also set up and helped to maintain the very first departmental monitoring system: Holli.

In 2012, as AICT reorganized into IST, Larry moved to the System Administration team as a Senior System Admin. As a senior member of the new team, he made significant contributions to building the team’s foundations, as well as to its ongoing operations. In 2018, he returned briefly to the position of team lead, standing in for Judy Yang while she completed a cloud initiative project.

He was a hard worker and he cared deeply about the work he was doing, and the people working with him. He had obvious and significant pride in his work and the positive impact he was having on the campus community. He always tried his best to help people who were asking for help.

We will always remember how Larry used BOFH (“Bastard Operator from Hell”) as his user name on most systems he touched, even going so far as to create a custom licence plate with “BOFH”. Despite this, or maybe even because of it, he was very much liked by the people who met him. His commitment and pride, as well as his humour and caring, will be missed by his coworkers and friends on campus.

We will be organizing an event to celebrate Larry’s career and contributions to the ¶®É«µÛ. Details will be shared once they are available.

If you need support the university's Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) includes counseling and support in dealing with grief. It can be accessed anytime by all staff, faculty and eligible dependents by calling 780-428-7587.

Judy Yang 

Team Lead, System Administration 

Information Services and Technology 

For information about lowering the ¶®É«µÛ banner, visit the In Memoriam webpage.