Tom's Legacy

I believe the U.S. research and education community owes a large debt of gratitude to Tom West for his unwavering persistence in the creation of NLR. By breaking new ground and obtaining long-term use of a nationwide pair of fibers and forging a strong corporate partnership, Tom's efforts have enabled multiple multi-use dedicated waves across a single infrastructure. NLR's offering lambda, Ethernet, and routed service capabilities provide our nation's scientists and engineers choice in matching their bandwidth needs to their data movement requirements. Tom's leadership and foresight has left an enduring legacy for our community. Many thanks Tom!

On behalf of the NLR Community,

Peter O'Neil
Executive Director,
Mid-Atlantic Crossroads

Tom West had many allies and supporters in the development of the strategic vision for NLR, and in building the organization that implemented that vision. But every one of those participants and stakeholders know that Tom West was the single critical player, demonstrating incredible doggedness, initiative, and creativity, that drove NLR to success. My perspective is biased by what NLR is today, and its positive and direct effects on the availability and affordability of communications services in the United States at the light-wave and greater than gigabit per second services levels; and is shaped by my understanding of the extraordinary market structure and political obstacles to the emergence of these capabilities at the beginning of this century. I consider what Tom achieved to be an extraordinary contribution to the higher education and research community, and to the nation's broadband agenda.

Erv Blythe,
VP for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer
Virginia Tech University