I recently had the honor of writing the preface to Eugene's
"At Work and Play with J" (a collaborate editing effort of the
J community and a work of which Eugene was very proud).
I reproduce it here because it gives a sense of the man
and his work.

 In my youth, when I was just starting in APL, on receiving
 an issue of the APL Quote-Quad I would inevitably and
 eagerly first turn to Eugene McDonnell’s  “Recreational APL”
 column.  Through these columns  I learned that it was possible
 for technical writing  to be erudite, educational, and entertaining,
 and through them I learned a lot of APL.

 Thus it was with Eugene’s “At Play with J” articles
 in Vector.  In topics ranging from primes to permutations
 to pyramids to pi, with a cast of characters that included
 Apter, Black, and Crelle,  Jacob and Josephus,
 Blanda and Montana and Taylor, and Scholes, the articles
 offered up the “smoother pebbles” and “prettier shells”
 found while playing on the seashore bordering the great
 ocean of knowledge.  And we are all beneficiaries
 of this play.

 I am pleased that Vector is publishing the collection of
 At Play with J as a book. I look forward to being
 educated and entertained once more.

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Wikipedia entry:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McDonnell

Collected papers and articles:
 http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/eem/