Overview
- He died Friday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills following complications from Alzheimer’s, according to his son, Eric Pederson.
- On Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, he ran the visual-effects “war room,” coordinating months-long, multi-element composites that contributed to the film’s 1969 Oscar for special effects.
- Douglas Trumbull is quoted describing him as the smartest person in the room and asserting the film would not have happened without him, while Oscar winner John Nelson praised his dual mastery of hand animation and programming.
- After 2001, he co-founded Robert Abel & Associates and later served as a creative lead at Metrolight Studios, with credits including HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon and animation work at Rhythm & Hues on early-2000s features.
- He studied at UCLA, worked at Disney, contributed to rocket graphics with Wernher von Braun, and created the 1964 World’s Fair short To the Moon and Beyond that drew Kubrick’s attention; survivors include his wife Carole, his son Eric, stepchildren Tracey and Morgan, and grandchildren Alex and Vivi.