In response to A Glimmer(ick) of Hope, Professor Nick Trefethen of Computer Science, Cornell, wrote some limericks regarding Gries, which he read at an appropriate occasion. Each limerick is about a different person's reaction to Gries.

(An Irish colleague)
This distinguished professor called David
Shows great courage to stand up and brave it.
His poetry glows
With the CS he knows
But, bejesus! -- his rhymes are deprav-ed.

(The Chair of Computer Science at Cornell)
Our Chair mutters dear, dear oh me,
What to do with 100ab?
Old David, the rascal,
Wants to teach it in Pascal --
When all of the money's in C!

(Dean John E. Hopcroft)
Dean Hopcroft looked up and he frowned
When he heard Gries again was renowned.
All the prizes he wins,
This guy's gotta be twins!
I told you to spread them around!

(An Employer)
Some onlookers wonder how Gries
Can consult for such mind-bending feese.
He just shows his clients
Programming's a science
Can I have that six thousand now, pleasse?

(A contented undergraduate)
The appeal of this prof's paradoxical
From day one it's all formal and lochical
The math's kind of weighty
But this dude's 280
Is a tour de force pedagogical.

(A disgruntled PhD student)
Every summer you fly off to India,
Home of Amit, Vineet and Anindya.
Your work there's pro bono,
But you don't have a phono!
Come on home where we wish we had pinned ya!

(T.V. Raman --Gries's past PhD advisee)
T.V. Raman gave this exegesis
How he speedily wrote up his thesis
To make it go faster
I got help from Aster
But the biggest assistance was Gries's.

(Linda Competillo --exec. admin. asst. of Gries and Schneider)
Poor Linda's been having strange dreams.
In one, Gries was serving ice creams.
Then his moustache grew wider
And he morphed into Schneider!
The neighbors awoke with her screams.