Obituary
Tributes to Mike
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Oregon Graduate Institute
October 11, 1968 – March 15, 2001
Amy Zepp Macon, M.D., wife
Thomas W. and Mary Ann Macon, parents
Robert T. Macon, brother
Peggy Zepp, sister-in-law
Andrew Zepp, brother-in-law
Background
Mike was born October 11, 1968, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he grew up and graduated second in his class from Thomas More High School in 1986. After winning a Marianist scholarship, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1991.
Graduate studies took him to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he received a Masters in Electrical Engineering in 1993 and a Ph.D. in 1996. In 1996 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department at Oregon Graduate Institute in Portland, Oregon, where he taught digital signal processing and did research on speech synthesis techniques.
On June 28, 1997 he married Amy Marie Zepp, a resident physician at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital in Portland. An avid musician, Mike played keyboard and accordion in several bands, most noteably Soup in the southeast U.S. and Soul Patrol Mission in the Portland area. Other interests included hiking with his wife Amy and their Golden Retriever, Sammie.
Research interests
Dr. Macon's research interests lie in the areas of speech synthesis and digital signal processing. He has worked in both academic and industrial environments in the areas of speech synthesis, speech and audio coding, and music synthesis. His work is currently directed toward the development of algorithms for high-quality speech synthesis using trainable, data-driven techniques.
Education
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 1996
M.S., Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1993
(completed coursework at Georgia Tech Lorraine in Metz, France.)
Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, 1991
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH
Professional experience
Assistant Professor since November 1996
Research and teaching in the areas of speech processing and digital signal processing.
Oregon Graduate Institute, Portland, OR
Dept. of Electrical Engineering/Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Georgia Inst. of Technology - School of ECE, Atlanta, GA
Position: Teaching Assistant, Sept. 1991 to Oct. 1996
Assisted graduate-level courses in signal processing
British Telecom - Speech Synthesis and Analysis Lab, United Kingdom
Position: Research Fellow, December 1995
Research project: Speech synthesis methods in the Laureate II text-to-speech system.
Texas Instruments - Corporate R&D, Signal Processing Branch, Dallas, TX
Position: Summer Research Intern, June { Sept. 1995
Development of 2400 bps speech coding simulation, low-cost music analysis/synthesis methods.
Lockheed Sanders - Signal Processing Center of Technology, Nashua, NH
Position: Summer Research Intern, June { Sept. 1994
Sinusoidal modeling research, development of real-time 2400 bps vocoder.
Motorola Paging Products Group, Boynton Beach, FL
Position: Electrical Engineer II, June { Sept. 1993
Development of image processing algorithms for fax-based paging device
Affiliations
Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing
Reviewer for journals
Speech Communication
Computer, Speech, and Language
Member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
The European Speech Communication Association (ESCA)
The Acoustical Society of America
Tau Beta Pi
Awards
· NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, 1999
· Sigma Xi Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award, Georgia Tech, 1996
· Presidential Fellowship, Georgia Tech, 1991-1994
· Marianist Scholarship, Mumma Foundation Scholarship, University of Dayton, 1986-1991
Kelly Novak - a friend from Mike's high school days
Soup - the band Mike played with in Atlanta
I want to tell you that the time I've spent here, last Summer and Fall, was some of the best days I had ever in my life, and for that, I thank Mike: not only we started working on exciting projects when I arrived in June, also we'd play music with the "Funky Lapinos" at night... I was amazed at how life was simple for Mike and how energic and positive he was all the time (and fun when he'd grab the microphone to sing in place of Pilar in a falsetto mood).
Open, lovable and bright-shining, it's the Mike I know.
My favorite time was when we were driving to the other side of Portland to Pilar's place, we would have time to chat. I rarely had this feeling of being in front of an "open book". We were talking about music of course, about getting older, running our lives, our birthdays coming in october! We belong to the same generation, he had an experience in France, I had this experience in Oregon, it was curious. Then I'll remember this saturday morning all my life: he phoned to cancel the walk in the woods, he was coughing, wanted to rest and visit Kaiser on monday, the rest is know.
Louise, my 4 year old daughter, is fond of Mike. Now and then in January, February and March she would understand from our grim faces that something was going wrong and she would ask "I'm really looking forward when Mike leaves the hospital, I like it when you make music, it's fun. And I like to go to his place too" (Mike would always carefully and gently introduce Sammy to the youngest ones, so that they are not scared). This reminds me also about the mail Mike sent to everybody in OGI to annouce his disease (12th October), even though he was striked badly, he had this sweet footnote for people in the department "This is nothing contagious - even if I have coughed right in your face.." (still makes me smile today: he's diagnosed with a lethal cancer and he takes the time to reassure people who might be ignorant of cancer's facts and panic for themselves).
You can be proud of him, he made a difference around him, whoever the people I talk to (well also as a brilliant researcher in the blah-blah community, but this whole research job sounds like a fun game rather than a quest to have his name carved in history).
Since then, life withered somehow, the stories I read to my daughters at night have lost some innocence, my guitar rest in her case and my job starts looking like a job. I lacked the courage to come in the hospital, I'm not sure what for anyway, maybe to speak to him in his sleep. Well, I talk to him in my sleep and I tell him I'm glad I had the chance to meet him. In "bitter end" there's the word bitterness, although he had several occasions, Mike did not show a trace of it.
Love,
Vincent PAGEL
To all who miss Mike as much as I do,
I was certainly touched by the wonderful email tribute that one of his new friends in Portland wrote. For me, it hit so many chords of how I was feeling.
I met Mike sophomore year in high school, it seems almost unimaginable that we are old enough to know someone for almost 16 years. And the friendship that grew and evolved over those years is certainly one of my dearest. I never ceased to be amazed by Mike's energy as a student of both the "book-smart stuff" and generally as a student of the world. My memories range from high school dances to college school breaks spent in Milwaukee catching up to living in Atlanta and having Mike show me the ropes of a new city. I always remember a lot of laughter and jokes and appreciation of the accordion as a hip musical instrument!
I think about how lucky Mike was that in his short life, he achieved what most people spend 70 years trying to find--- the love of his life in his wife and soul mate, a job he truly had a passion for, a way to express himself creatively through music, the opportunity to travel and see most of the world, and the love and admiration of his family and friends. What a great inspiration for all of us to carry with us the rest of our lives, a life well-lived and full of love and happiness. The best tribute we can all give Mike is to approach life with as much passion and grace as Mike did.
I'll miss you Mike!
Kelly Novak
Mike Macon was a close friend to all of us and we will miss him dearly. He will always be in our hearts and we will cherish the experiences we shared with him.
The contributions that Mike made to our band cannot be adequately described in words. One of Soup's founding members, and original accordion player, Mike can be heard on both "Laughing at the Fables" and as a very special guest on "Breakdown". Mike played with the band from its inception until 1996 when he decided to leave in order to marry the love of his life, Amy, and the two moved to Portland, Oregon, where he pursued a career as a professor.
Mike's accordion style defined Soup's distinct sound from the band's inception. His influence still exists in our music today. More importantly Mike's friendship and attitude toward life always reminded us of why we loved to play music - simply to have fun. Whether we were playing an open mic night at a small coffeehouse in Buckhead in front of 10 people, or if we were crammed in a small hotel room in South Georgia fighting over who had to sleep on the floor, his presence forced us all to make the best of any situation and of course to have a good time. Our hearts go out to his wife Amy and to all of his family and friends. Our memories of Mike will live on whenever we listen to or play the songs we created together.
Mike Macon was a close friend to all of us and we will miss him dearly. He will always be in our hearts and we will cherish the experiences we shared with him.