[Updated Feb. 9 and Feb. 10 with comments and funeral service/memorial donations details—see below] Xconomy is very sad to note that John Mucci, the co-founder and former CEO and director of SiCortex, the Maynard, MA-based startup that sought to build a new generation of energy-efficient supercomputers, passed away yesterday of a heart attack, according to reports we have received.
Mucci had a long history as a sales executive, and before co-founding SiCortex with Matt Reilly and Jud Leonard around 2003, had been a vice president at Thinking Machines Corporation, where he worked from 1986 to 1994, according to his LinkedIn page. He had also served in several executive positions at Digital Equipment Corp., and had co-founded another startup, TopicalNet (previously known as Continuum Software), according to his bio on the SiCortex site, which is still up although the company announced it was closing its doors last May.
“It is a sad day for all… less competition, unemployed seventy some workers…” Mucci wrote Xconomy in an e-mail at the time SiCortex closed, even though he had been replaced 10 months earlier as CEO. I had not verified the current status of SiCortex at the time of this post.
SiCortex had been funded in part by Polaris Venture Partners. Polaris general partner Bob Metcalfe wrote this in an email tonight: “While working on SiCortex, John and I walked together, he my guide for three years, through the exhibits of the SuperComputing conferences. Everyone there knew and liked John. And I mean everyone.”
Mucci, who had a B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University, was reportedly working on a new venture. I could not verify his age by the time of this post.
Update, Feb. 9, 2010: SiCortex co-founder Matt Reilly, who says Mucci was 67 years old when he died, writes this: “John was a man of great enthusiasms, but I think the greatest was building connections with and between people. John didn’t build SiCortex, as much as he knitted it together. As a partner, a coworker, a friend, and guide he gave more than I could ever repay.
John was exploring several new opportunities and ventures at the time of his passing. He will be sorely missed.”
Update, Feb. 10, 2010: The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, February 13th, at First Parish Church in Stow, MA. A wake will be held from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. on Friday, February 12th, at Fowler Kennedy Funeral Home in Maynard.
Memorial donations may be made to the Trustees of Tufts University, Travis Fund for Needy Animals, Office of Development and Alumni Relations, Cummings School Veterinary Medicine, 200 Westboro Rd, North Grafton, MA, 01536; and WBUR Boston, Attn: Susan Tompkins, 890 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA, 02215.
