It is with great sadness that we share sad news: Mitch Williams passed away on Monday March 11, 2019. A long-time Web3D Consortium member and a X3D advocate, Mitch was active in the Web3D community for several years and was recently elected as a member of the Web3D Consortium Board of Directors. The Web3D Community will remember Mitch for his contributions to 3D Graphics and VR. Funeral services will be held at Eden Memorial Park in Los Angeles on 20 March, 2019 from 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm (details at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/mission-hills-ca/mitchell-wil...)

We last saw Mitch at SIGGRAPH 2018 in Vancouver. He told us that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer but was optimistic about his treatment and in good spirits and still actively pursuing 3D graphics at Samsung. He fought a valiant battle against this cancer for over 12 months. Rest In Peace Mitch, the Web3D Community will forever remember you for your passion for 3D Graphics and VR.

Funeral services will be held at Eden Memorial Park in Los Angeles on 20 March, 2019 from 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm (details at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/mission-hills-ca/mitchell-williams-8203502)

Mitch was always enthralled by the fundamental insights obtained when displaying information in three or more dimensions. He pursued his passion using a large variety of technologies from VRML to Java/Java3D to X3D. His passion extended to educating others as a writer (WebGL Hotshot) and teacher - middle school to college (UCLA, UC Berkeley, El Camino Community).

He was a constant and continual promoter of VRML and X3D being one of the first business to use 3D content on his website. His last professional efforts were to bring X3D into Samsung’s GearVR so that people could easily create 3D content for that device. Despite his health conditions he recently started leading the Web3D Mixed reality Working Group for using X3D in MAR applications.

Mitch was an educator and has inspired students to continue forward with their ideas through Pixar, Sony, Google, Samsung, Apple, the United Nations, Create, and beyond. He was an author for life and his words, his care, and the mark he has left will live forever.

Mitch was also a member of the LA ACM Siggraph Chapter and ACM SIGGRAPH.  He was a SIGGRAPH Pioneer and Mentor for many of those years. He prided himself that he attended every SIGGRAPH Conference. Mitch along with Dave Blackburn, (Virtual Ventures) Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz (Electronic Cafe), Cindy Ballreich (3Name3D), Mark Pesce (SGI), John DeCuir (Sony Picture Imageworks), Leonard Daly (Daly Realism), and others formed the Los Angeles VRML User Group from a BOF at Spring 1997 Internet World. They were soon joined by Carole Sumler and Tony Rockliff & Pascal Baudar (Cybertown).

Mitch Williams - San Francisco Bay Area | Professional Profile | LinkedIn

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-williams-a765191

 Mitch’s many contributions:

3D Online:     http://3d-online.com

WebGL Hotshot

    https://www.amazon.com/WebGL-Hotshot-Mitch-Williams-ebook/dp/B00KLAJ65Y

Introduction to WebGL

    https://slideplayer.com/slide/14134461

 Mitch Williams Github: GearVRf

    https://github.com/mwitchwilliams

 Samsung GearVRf

    https://github.com/Samsung/GearVRf