James J. Sherin

Dedicated to serving as a good example for others, James J. Sheridan built an accomplished career as an engineer, a programmer, a lecturer, and an educator for more than six decades. Prior to his retirement in 2021, he was active as a part-time instructor of mathematics, engineering, IT courses, networking, and computer tools for first-year engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh for 15 years. He was previously active in IT from 1964 to 2003 and as a UNIX Systems Administrator at UPMC Health Systems from 1997 to 2003.

Naturally gifted with communication skills and a strong memory for numbers, Mr. Sherin earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, with minors in history and engineering, from Geneva College in 1962, followed up by master’s degree coursework at Duquesne University. Launching his career as a systems analyst and a contractor, he then became a teacher of mathematics and drafting at Rochester Area School District from 1962 to 1964—during which he took a group of students on a tour to a data center, Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, which intrigued him to apply to a school that teaches assembly languages—low-level computer programming language consisting mostly of symbolic equivalents.

Initially believing he would be bored by this burgeoning technology, Mr. Sherin quickly became enthralled by it, beginning his work in IT in 1964. In the midst of that position, from 1967 to 1982, he was an on-site analyst and analyst-in-charge at Control Data Corporation and a pre-sales analyst at Cray Research, Inc. Afterward, he found success across numerous roles, including system programmer, user consultant, manager, and project leader at Westinghouse Electric Corporation for more than 10 years and was active as a systems administrator for Thrift Drug, Inc. for a year. When he retired from his job in IT, he wanted to teach at the college level and had the opportunity to do so at the University of Pittsburgh, where he excelled in teaching freshman engineering students a wide range of computer tools such as Excel, HTML, MATLAB, and C++ in order to better solve problems in their engineering career. He loved being able to pass along his knowledge and expertise to his students and to the next generation of engineers he always emphasized the importance of not only learning the necessary technology but how to deal with people. Outside of his predominant positions, he has been an active volunteer and scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America since the 1980s and a Scout Leader for more than 30 years, which involved teaching and mentoring numerous young people. He said he finds it supremely rewarding to “be able to help others, spend time with people, and see them grow and get better at whatever they’re doing.”

Although retired from the university, Mr. Sherin sees himself continuing to teach in the future as well as contribute to his local church and sing in its choir. Married to his late wife, Catherine, for more than 55 years, he is the father of three children, grandfather to four, and great-grandfather to two. His life motto is, and has always been, “Be of service to people.”