Oral History Video – Roger Kent Summit, Part 1
Video Transcript
Oral History Interview: Dr. Roger K. Summit (Part 1)
Interviewer: Roger, could you state your full name?
Roger Summit: It’s Roger Kent Summit. Roger is spelled without a “d”, and Summit is S-U-M-M-I-T with just a single “t”.
Interviewer: Tell us a memorable story that influenced your life later on.
Roger Summit: I guess it depends on which aspect of my life we’re looking at, but music has always been a very important part of my life. I remember my mother encouraging me to take up the trombone because she said there were not many trombone players and lots of sax players. She said if I took up trombone, I’d have a much better chance of playing.
… [Click here to read the full transcript]
Roger K. Summit – Memorial 2026
Editor’s Note: I am sorry, I do not have all of the photo authors listed. Apologies to George Plosker and others who are not individually credited below. Many of the photos above and below are contributed by George Plosker, who also put together the poster honoring Roger. If you wish a photo credit added, contact me @ drweb2@gmail.com …
Featured Update: Roger Summit, founder of Dialog Information Services (aka Dialog), paved the way for automated, interactive information retrieval that defined online searching some 25 years before Google existed. In his mid-90s and still in good health, Summit was hit by a car at The Forum, a retirement community in Cupertino, California, where he lived, and taken to Stanford Hospital. He did not survive the accident.
The members of the DIALOG-X (former employees) mailing list have received information that Roger Summit has passed. The details are minimal at this point, it occurred Saturday, June 6, 2026. We will post more information as it becomes known and published.
Here’s Roger’s Wikipedia page, and he’s of course featured here in the Web site, we built to honor him, and keep the history alive.
Michael McCulley aka DrWeb
(former Webmaster, DIALOG)
DIALOG History 
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