EDUCATION
I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in 1961 graduated from Washington
High School and directly entered Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE).
I received an Electronics Technology (ECT) two year degree in 1963 and
our Electrical Engineering (BSEE) four year degree in 1967.
EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCES
In 1967, I started my career at Univac as a Field Engineer working
out of Plant 5 on Prior Ave in St. Paul. My first field assignment was
at Bell Telephone Laboratory in Whippany, NJ starting in mid 1967 which
lasted until 1970. During 1969, I was the Site Manager. In 1970,
I returned to St. Paul to begin training for my next field assignment
for Lockheed California Company at Rye Canyon and Valencia, California.
I was the field site manager at Valencia working on the S-3 aircraft
hardware and software integration for this Anti-Submarine Warfare carrier-based
aircraft. I worked on Lockheed’s flight line/factory at
Burbank where the S-3 would be produced. I was responsible for the installation
and maintenance of the initial nineteen (19) S-3 mission computers on
the first 19 aircraft. I also supported the S-3 “flying test bed”
which was an older P-3A four (4) engine propeller-driven aircraft. I
supported Lockheed as I flew on ten (10) of those “test bed”
flights.
I returned to St. Paul in 1973 and accepted an assignment in airborne
program management. Maintenance management of both S-3 and P-3
support and logistics activities for airborne computers was my primary
task. I managed our team of engineers during the three (3) weeks we
spent in Burbank to upgrade the initial S-3 airborne computers on the
aircraft.
In 1976, I accepted a position in Air Traffic Management responsible
for the installation/integration, checkout, and acceptance of the New
York Tracon and Enroute Airport Radar Terminal System (EARTS) airport
facilities with the FAA as our customer. Our EARTS “Test Bed”
was at the Farmington, Minnesota Enroute Site.
I accepted a position in our subcontracts group in 1978 with the
following responsibilities:
- - Coordinate all
subcontract activities from inception of a procurement through the proposal,
negotiation, execution, delivery, and closure phases
- - Act as team leader
on all major subcontract negotiations
- - Manage all required
consultants
- - Lead all Teaming
Agreements
I subcontracted with suppliers of complex electronic systems in the
following countries: Japan, Germany, Israel, Egypt, the United Kingdom,
and the United States.
I returned to program management in 1982 as the Life
Cycle Manager for the medium ship-based computer for the US Navy and
other international users. This included integrated logistics support,
spare parts, technical documentation, performance and maintenance data
analysis, maintenance and technical support engineering, repair of failed
parts from the various fleets, and management of the field change program.
In 1983, I accepted a program management assignment
in the international ground, surface/subsurface, and air programs group.
In 1984, I became the Japanese surface/subsurface and air program manager
directing all activities in the Japanese programs and proposal efforts.
Because we were doing defense business in Japan, we required a Japanese
Trading Company for all of the Japanese tasks on the various contracts.
This particular relationship required extreme care and coordination
so as to not do something embarrassing to/with the customer. Patience
and understanding were required to do business in Japan. During
this timeframe, I concentrated on the Japanese air side of the business
interfacing with the Japanese companies Toshiba, Fujitsu, Kawasaki Heavy
Industries (KHI), Shimadzu, Sumitomo, and Mitsui.
We began concentrating on the Japanese P-3 upgrade effort
in 1992. Japan had been building the P-3 aircraft through a license
from Lockheed since 1980, and they required an upgrade to these aircraft.
In 1994, we entered into a Manufacturing License Agreement (MLA) with
Toshiba for the upgrade of seventy (70) of their aircraft. This was
a twenty (20) year agreement to end next year in 2014. I led our team
members from contracts, engineering (systems, test, and hardware), operations,
quality control, training, and logistics. We implemented this MLA and
delivered manufacturing processes and procedures, engineering drawings,
and quality requirements necessary for Toshiba and their subcontractors
Fujitsu and Shimadzu to manufacture, test, and deliver our airborne
processing system to their Defense Ministry.
In 1995, Loral purchased the defense portion of Unisys
which lasted until Lockheed Martin purchased most of Loral’s defense
divisions in 1997. The majority of our international airborne business
was with Japan and expanded into the next decade. We delivered special
test equipment and training to KHI for their lab testing of the airborne
processing system that Toshiba would supply for their P-3 system upgrade.
We also had a license agreement with Fujitsu to supply them with testing
processes and procedures for our video display processor for their radar
and software upgrade.
In 2007, we turned our attention to Europe; Germany
was ready for a sensor upgrade to their P-3 aircraft. This sensor was
an EO/IR (electro optical/infra-red) unit for surface surveillance that
was becoming extremely critical for the anti-piracy missions around
the world, especially off of the African coast near Somalia.
We signed a contract with the German Ministry of Defense in 2009
for the procurement, installation, test, and customer acceptance of
this sensor for their P-3 aircraft. I led the team that delivered this
EO/IR sensor and integrated it with not only the hardware but the software,
training, and documentation.
With the impending closure of Plant 8 in Eagan, I was forced to retire
from Lockheed Martin in May of 2011 after more than 44 1/2 years of
service because my two airborne programs were transferred to Lockheed
Martin in Owego, NY.
VIP CLUB INVOLVEMENT
After my retirement from Lockheed Martin in 2011; I joined the VIP
Club and started doing volunteer work on the legacy documentation at
Plant 8 in Eagan. I am now doing the documentation and cataloguing
at the Dakota County Historical Society (DCHS) LAWSHE Memorial Museum
in South St. Paul with other volunteers who had retired from Lockheed.
I've also done volunteer burger grilling at the annual Club picnics
in Highland Park these last three years.
2.2 Larye Parkins, 1965-1990.
I worked at METC in 1965, 1969, and 1970, on 1218s, 642Bs, the 667,
and delivered the first AN/UYK-7 to Dahlgren, Virginia. I worked on
the AEGIS EDM-1 project in Moorestown, NJ 1970-1974, and the Trident
and SSN-688 projects in Newport, RI from 1974-1980. At Moorestown, I
also helped decommission the one and only AN/UYK-8: the RCA project
folks had us remove all the chassis, place the cabinet in a trash can,
then reinsert the chassis for a "disposal" photo shoot.
I was "prematurely retired" from Unisys while at Submarine
Base Bangor in 1989, having last worked on white papers for the AN/UYK-43
embedded disk designs.
After a brief foray into commercial software as a COBOL programmer,
in 1990-91, while working on my MSE at Seattle University, I spent almost
5 years supporting ACDS test engineering on contract at Puget Sound
Naval Shipyard, while teaching computer science at night to pay off
my graduate school bills. For so long, the 24 years I spent at Sperry
and Unisys was just a mostly blacked-out section of my resume punctuated
with incomprehensible acronyms, prompting prospective employers to ask, "and
what makes you think you are in the same business?" Somehow, I've
managed to map the non-obvious similarities onto a new career in Unix,
but it wasn't easy. I think we have a lot to offer to the history
of computing before Microsoft and the Personal Computer, and I've
really enjoyed browsing through the personal anecdotes and chronologies
on your web site.
I am about to retire "for real" from a 13-year career in
Unix system administration and software engineering, most recently 8
years as an "accidental bio-informaticist" at the National
Institutes of Health, Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
In 2005, I put together a brief history of my first 40 years in computing,
of which most, at that time, was with Univac/Sperry/Unisys or, later,
working on combat systems test engineering for other support contractors.
The PDF version is pending.
2.3 Richard Petschauer, 1956-62. , 1971
-
I was manager of the Film Memory Engineering Dept. till June 1962
when I left the company for 6 years. I started in 1956 in the Memory
Dept. and was assigned to the Research group to design circuits for
the first film memory project, a research type that was based on a 1955
Paper by Art Pohm and Sidney Rubens. Later we got a project from the
Air Force to develop a non destructive read out (NDRO) memory [also
non volatile] that could replace the drum memories used in a missile
guidance. Major Gerry Probst was Air Force project manager. At that
time a department was set up in engineering to do this. The Research
Dept. continued with its separate activity. I was named supervisor of
circuit design in the dept., and about two years later the manager.
My film memory paper {Editor’s Note: See the Engineering, Memory
page.} could use some names of some of the people involved. For example
I was car pooling those days with Earl Joseph and Leo Kennedy. One day
I told them we can now build a very fast small thin film memory. Earl
was on a task force to define the commercial 1107 computer at the time,
and that is how the 1107 got it. Even today, the 1100 series still has
a small fast memory besides the main memory.
I came back in 1971 to the Roseville Group. I have some good stories
about those times too. Later a wrote a booklet summarizing the logic
and memory technology from the 1103 to about the 1190. At one time there
was a copy in the company library. I have a copy. I also have a copy
of my 1961 paper at the Western Joint Computer Conference on the first
multi-plane thin film memory ever made. At that time there were only
two major computer conferences a year.
2.4 Dr. Peter Patton, 1960-69
Lowell, I still remember fondly our cooperation on the AN/UYK-7 cache
memory studies. you were a great guy to work for. I went to St Paul
as principal programmer in 1961 to checkout the fleet test system on
the Oriskany using the original NTDS computer AN/USQ-17 designed by
Seymour Cray. We then redid it as the USQ-20, adding modern features
[at that time] like interrupts and packaged it vertically. The Q-17
used monitored buffers for Input/Output control. I had to rewrite the
CS-1 compiler with Clyde Allen for the Q-20. I did the first 418 demo
with Vic Benda and later consulted for both NAVSEC and Univac on the
AN/UYK-7 and then again on the AN-UYK-43. I remember all those guys
fondly: Doc (George) Chapin, Leon Findley, Clyde Allen, Don Ream, Paul
Hoskins, Cmdr Leichtweis, and Bill Rock. Those were the days, Lowell.
The first computer at the University of Minnesota was the Univac
1103 and the center there was started by Dr. Marvin Stein as the Numerical
Analysis Center. I think Marv came from Northrop in CA where he ran
an 1103 for aerospace research. As a matter of fact, I vaguely remember
he came with the machine [which was traded in for a new 1103A at Northrop]
when Univac gave the used trade-in to the University. At the time (1958)
I was in charge of systems programming at Boeing where we wrote our
own compilers/interpreters. Boeing bought an 1103A at the same time
to go alongside their new IBM 704 which replaced an IBM 701. That too
is an interesting Univac story.
I do think you should highlight the fact that the 1103 was the beginning
of computing at the University of Minnesota and that the University
has gone on from that start to achieve world recognition. They never
used anything but a Seymour Cray designed machine, Univac 1103, CDC
1604, CDC 6600, Cyber 76, Cray 1 and a Cray 2. When Marv Stein left
the position as director of computing to start up the their Computer
Science Department in 1971 he recommended me as his successor. [At that
time I had left Univac to join Vic Benda and Fred Lang (creator of Univac's
first FAA On-Line system using the file computer and those little paper
strips] to join Aires International (AiC) as General Manager.] I was
very flattered. I was a "fringe character" for the first three
but I was director of computing for the last three machines. I am an
old man now, Lowell, and I have a lot of stories. Please advise what
topics I should concentrate on to keep from just giving a stream of
consciousness memory dump. You remember how difficult memory dumps are
to understand!
When CDC separated from Univac they took the 490 drawings with them,
and as later proved in the court room, changed the word and bus length
from 30 bits to 48 bits and brought out the 1604. The University was
one of the first, if not the very first installations. The Univac attorney
took 1604 and 490 drawings to the courtroom window, superimposed them
and showed that the only changes were the company logos in the lower
right hand corner and all the single line drawings of the busses were
changed from /30 to /48. A rather convincing argument, I thought.
All the best, Pete Patton
Lowell, I misspoke when I called Fred Lang's FAA project the "OnLine"
system. Of course it was the EnRoute System. He used the Univac File
Computer which succeeded the old RemRand mechanical punched card units.
The machine kept track of all flights in an FAA airspace control area
and was updated by radar and/or manual inputs. It printed out little
strips of paper about 3/4" by 8" and these were posted in
slots on the ATC's "board" and moved about manually as
flights took off/landed, entered/left airspace, etc.
Fred left Univac to start the first software company Aires International
with Rich Daly. When all the business went to DC, he sold out to Daly
and started Analysts International Corp. He raided programmers from
Univac Military Division to staff his new company. For many years his
main customer was CDC although AiC built system and applications software
for many other Twin Cities firms as well. Pete
Lowell,
Good to hear from you. [January 14th, 2021]
We are both well and I am still teaching
full-time at age 85. Mostly graduate classes in either aerospace
or software engineering to in-service engineers from Tinker AFB,
Boeing, and Northrup-Grumman.
I did not come on the scene at UMinn until 1969
after I had left Univac to join Analysts International. I led an
effort to develop a ten-year plan for computers in State Government,
Local Government and Higher Education. I met Marvin Stein for the
first time during that project. He was a true pioneer in computing
and there is a good Wikipedia article on him. By then UMinn had gone
to the CDC 1604 then the 6600 and he faculty was demanding
timesharing. Dr. Stein was opposed to timeshared computing and
resigned to take up chairmanship of the new Computer Science
Department which he and Bill Munroe founded. Dick Halverson then
replaced him as interim computer center director. After finishing
the ten-year plan for the State I was offered the job as assistant
director under Dick Halverson who was anxious to return full-time to
the EE Department. After a year, I became director. I was never
involved in the academic politics that led to Marvin's leaving the
computer center. Before I accepted the job, however I met with him
and told him that I would not accept it if I or my study for the
state was in any way, even unknowingly, responsible for his leaving
it. He assured me that I was not and that he was much more
interested in developing a new academic department in computer
science than running a computer center, and strongly encouraged me
to take the job. So, Lowell, I can't really help you with this
essay. I came on the scene much too late.
Pete Patton
2.5 Jane Pejsa, 1956-1961
Editor's note: Jane is noted on a poster board as part of the Minnesota
History Center's " Minnesota's Greatest Generation" exhibit.
The following is an excerpt from the story which she sent to Dick Lundgren.}
Regarding getting a job in the first place:
Then one day I received a phone call from my Carleton Math Professor.
This was in mid-year 1956. He asked me, “Are you still working
in that dippy job at the phone company?” And of course I was.
He told me to get myself over to a place in St. Paul called Remington
Rand, where one of his women math majors, a year ahead of me, had just
signed on. And so I did. I was promptly hired, on my own terms—3
full days a week—since I had a small child at home.
Regarding the new working home:
What an absolutely wonderful place I found my new working home. It
had originally, during WWII, been a glider factory, and more recently
the home of a new “computer” firm ERA. It was in the process
of acquiring new ownership and a new name. Mr. Norris and several other
senior employees had left to start a firm that would become very famous—Control
Data. Thus the glider factory crowd had been acquired by Remington Rand
and at the time I joined was being taken over by Univac. That is how
I remember it though this may be backwards.
I was given a table next to a wall—upper half a glass wall--in
a tiny office with my boss Jules Mercel, clearly a very, very intelligent
man. I spent the first days studying what this computer, the Univac
Scientific, was all about. It was being built under government contract.
I even had a title—Systems Analyst—though I had no idea
what the title meant. I was a new programmer. And of course this was
machine language—binary, which we early interpreted in octal.
Octal arithmetic came very easily to me. Our programming tasks included
putting the contents of numbered stored locations, into the accumulator
and at least two other registers, removing them, and doing other stunts
to simulate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and—the most
difficult—division.
Regarding the work environment:
I am sure that no two doors in the entire building were the same.
Probably no two desks were the same. This giant computer comprised several
large metal floor-standing metal containers, with a working table standing
among them, all this housed in a large room. On the table stood a keyboard
to punch paper tape with our octal numbers, pairs of scissors and glue
pots, plus a little machine to secure pieces of paper tape, as we corrected
and otherwise changed our little programs. Imagine, at this time we
still did not have a way of saying directly “add,” “subtract”, “multiply”, “divide.”
Each day we signed up for a stint on the computer to try out our latest
coding. There was always a lineup for this privilege. I believe there
was also the possibility of “testing,” a means of developing
a meaningful set of commands, particularly in the case of division.
In hot weather, even with air conditioning, the Univac Scientific very
early would be shut down because of heat. I think of all the time wasted
that year in shutdowns and waiting for one’s turn at the Computer.
For all the problems and the makeshift work areas, the glider factory
was the most exciting place I had ever encountered. Then one day my
boss Jules Mercel told me he was leaving for California, to join the
Rand Corporation. I knew he was very, very smart as well as tolerant
of this babe in the woods. I remember him storming into our little office,
slamming the door and saying, “I have never attended a meeting
out of which came a new idea. This meeting was no different.
Regarding relocation and a new boss:
Very soon after my boss left, our whole operation was moved to the
Griggs-Midway building on University Avenue. I believe the computer
pieces were also moved. This time we programmers took over a part of
an entire empty floor, no partitions of any kind. I don’t even
remember for whom I worked at that time. All I remember was that everyone
from the top to the bottom took 2 to 2.5-hour lunch hours and no one
seemed to care. (I did not. Somehow this really disturbed me.) Apparently
the firm was rolling in money at this time. We were now moving into
not only government money but also some private contracts.
Eventually we were given a proper office and my new boss was Earl
C. Joseph. We were four women who worked under him and we all sat with
him in a nice modern little office. As you may recall, Earl Joseph sometime
later left Univac and launched himself into a new career. He really
defined and founded the whole area of Futurists, an area that now seems
to thrive. About a decade ago I attended one of his lectures. I reminded
him that I had worked for him for about 6 months. He, however, had no
idea who I was. So it goes.
Regarding her target computer and a new programming language
This was now the first months of 1957. The Univac Scientific was
now the 1103, which presumably had been completed. We were together,
now designing software, still in machine code, to test what was new
in the emerging 1103A. Presently we were again on the move, this time
to a very pleasant building out on Mississippi Drive in St. Paul, right
at the corner of Ford Parkway and the river. I recall it was one-storey
with large broad show windows facing west and south. Possibly it had
previously been a show room of some kind. From the beginning it was
just temporary since Univac had started construction of a major plant
downstream on the river. Probably I worked here just a few weeks. What
is memorable is the fact that we all were pitching in to develop a new
high-level language that would take over the world. We all knew that
IBM was equally busy on its new high-level language. I was already convinced
that Univac would lose. And of course it did, for IBM’s Fortran
did take over the scientific world. I wish I could remember the name
given to the language Univac was trying to develop.
I worked just a few weeks at the Ford Parkway plant, for my second
child was scheduled soon to be born. Actually he arrived three weeks
late. I could have stayed longer. I had no interest in coming back after
the baby was born. The new plant seemed too far away from Old Lowry
Hill in Minneapolis, where we had built a little house. Presumably this
was the end of my computer life.” [It wasn’t.]
2.6 Phil Phipps, 1955-1989
- Graduated from Willamette University, 1947-1951, with double
major in Math and Physics. GPA above 3.5/4.0
- Attended Iowa State College, 1951-1953, for an MA degree in
Nuclear Physics. Had an assistantship working for the AEC. My research
and thesis was focused on “Short half-lives (a few seconds)
of isotopes produced by photo nuclear reactions" using the
AEC Laboratory 60 MEV synchrotron.
- Attended MIT, 1953-1955, in Applied Math and obtained a MS degree.
My thesis was on the machine solutions to a non-linear partial differential
heat equation with a nearby singularity boundary. I then left MIT
to go to work in the computer field.
- 1955—Applied for work at ERA and reported for work at
Remington Rand/Univac/Sperry Rand/ UNISYS until November 1989 at
retirement. Initially worked with a team on programming the Univac
1103 to solve large (100 x 100) sparse linear programming problems.
- 1955-1960—Worked with the Athena Ground Guidance computer
as supervisor for guidance software development for the Titan I
missile. Initially, directed and trained programmers to do fixed
point arithmetic for the ground guidance equations developed by
Bell Telephone Labs. The Athena was an 8192 16-bit word capacity
drum computer with a small core memory of 256 24-bit words. Other
guidance programs were developed by the group included the Thor
Delta missions of the Air Force. As part of the software development
considerable support software tools were designed to compile, test,
checkout, and validate/exercise the guidance computer software.
Trajectory simulated guidance data on the 1103 was designed to generate
the radar data that the computer would see in an actual mission.
That radar data, which took about 3 hours to compute, was then punched
into a thousand feet of paper tape and run on a high speed tape
handler to supply the radar data to the Athena in the real time
of 5 minutes. The expected guidance commands were generated from
the 1103 version of the Athena guidance program were also punched
into the paper tape. The tape handler was designed to provide the
simulated radar data to the Athena and compare the exact guidance
commands from the Athena with those that came from the 1103 simulation.
It worked like a charm provided the tape didn’t break or a
bit of chaff hadn’t stuck in any of the holes in the tape!
- 1960-1969—Performed IR&D research on applying Univac
computers to new anticipated missile and satellite missions. This
entailed visiting Navy and Air Force offices and labs to discuss
anticipated new/needed functions the better to size the future computer
needs.
- Wrote the winning proposal for the radar directed satellite/re-entry
vehicle automatic acquisition software/system for Air Force’s
Atlantic Missile Range to be stationed at the Ascension Island.
I was personally responsible for the mathematics to do this. The
software group that I directed used the militarized 1206 computer.
The problem to be solved was to use acquisition data relayed from
Cape Canaveral to a remote site to direct the FPS-16 radar to automatically
acquire and track the approaching space vehicle, track the vehicle
through re-entry and splash-down, then report the splash-down point
coordinates. Tracking in the re-entry phase had to be open-loop,
i.e., the radar was “blind” during that phase due to
the plasma generated by the heat of re-entry. After the blackout
period the radar was directed to re-acquire the vehicle. At first
the radar operator did not trust the computer and insisted on controlling
the re-acquisition himself, which most of the time failed so the
exact splash-down coordinates could not be determined. In later
tests the operator in desperation gave permission for the computer
to control the re-acquisition, which it did perfectly the first
time! The computer had been tracking the vehicle open loop prior
to re-entry. If the space vehicle was just to fly over, the new
acquisition data, orbital parameters were relayed to further down-range
tracking sites. The next site was in South Africa.
Later, a programming support group was established at Cape Canaveral
as an extension of our St Paul group. Bernie Jansen headed up that
liaison task. Even later a similar group was established at the
Pacific Missile Range at Pt. Magu. The latter supported many, many
launches including range safety functions. They guided over 500
launches without a single mishap due to computer or software malfunction!
- Managed the follow-on software development for further downrange
mobile van mounted acquisition/tracking sites. Manny Block was the
able manager for the integration of software and computer equipment
for those projects. The first such site we installed was for the
upgrading of the South Africa site.
- 1962-1963—Participated in the proposal and management
of the software development group for the ARIS tracking ships. Sperry
Gyro, the prime, provided the analysis and equations. The software
group did the fixed point scaling, programming, checkout and integration
with the other ship mission hardware. The accuracy of the tracking
algorithms had to be at least an order of magnitude better than
was used for land based acquisition and tracking. The ARIS ship
had to spend at least two weeks on station just surveying in their
location by triangulating various stars to get the location of the
tracking site to within about 100 feet! The nine degrees of freedom
the ship's hull flexure experienced had to be computed and accounted
for while tracking stars or mission satellites.
- Managed the guidance software development group for various
Air Force programs using the 1824 on board guidance computer. Again,
fixed point scaling of the guidance equations was needed. The biggest
challenge for the programmers was to “shoe horn” all
the programs into the 1824 memory; every byte and bit was needed!
- 1960-1969—Performed analysis of requirements studies and
proposals for undersea computer applications. The main candidate
application was for the passive submarine sonar station. Underwater
acoustics, digital signal processing, target classification aids
and display applications were needed to be understood and integrated
into the submarine environment. In addition, from the passive sonar
data over time the target track had to be developed automatically.
During this time I participated in the company’s digital UNIVAC
1616 HFFT computer design.
- This understanding by the software and analysis group was later
used to develop software algorithms for target tracking of under
and surface targets for buoy operation for the S-3A ASW plane.
- 1971-1975—My analysis group developed the first digital
MAD detection and location algorithms for the LAMPS helicopter project.
This digital system was later tested and found to be as good as
or better than the trained MAD operator in actual field tests. And
later, algorithm and software were development for the cryogenic
MAD system, which was designed and developed at Unisys, St Paul.
- 1974-1975—Participated on the initial requirements for
the UNIVAC commercial 1108/array Processor.
- 1974-1976—Worked on algorithm and simulation development
for computer-aided anti-aircraft gun tracking and firing for 20
and 35 mm guns in a new business venture.
- Managed the Federal Railroad Agency feasibility study for real-time
analysis of acoustic signals for the rail inspection vehicle study
contract. We developed the digital anomaly detection and classification
of rail flaws from multiple ultrasonic acoustic returns from energy
pulses fired into the rail at various angles. The objective was
to determine what digital computer capability was needed for real-time
processing on board a rail inspection car running at 30 mph. It
turned out a new computer design would have been required to handle
the computation load even at 5 mph! The current hardware technology
was not up to the job at that time.
- Proposed, and was awarded the development of an automatic real-time
manual Morse code translator from signals taken directly off the
air. The customer was the Air Force. The system had to be adaptive
to the operator’s “fist” and variable rate of
transmission that characterized the human sending operator.
- Personally participated in a number of highly classified digital
signal processing contract studies for prime contractors with whom
Unisys was teamed.
- Later I planned and carried out IR&D application research
projects in anticipation of military RFPs and new business planning.
Acted as liaison in signal processing and artificial intelligence
technology (1971-1982) with the Sperry Research Center in Sudbury,
Massachusetts.
- 1980-1989—Formed, developed, hired and helped train the
artificial intelligence (AI) application group using IR&D funds
in order to help qualify DSD for advanced military tactical contracts
requiring that capability. When contracts were won, one or more
of my group would be loaned to the project to help incorporate whatever
AI techniques would be appropriate.
- 1987-1988—Participated in an NSIA government-sponsored
industry committee “The Anti-Submarine Warfare Committee”
to determine the future role of digital undersea surveillance in
ASW. This was a 2-year program.
Helped develop several probability decision analysis methods using
multiple information sources that were “noisy” and often
contradictory. This was needed for multi-sensor data fusion processing,
particularly for target tracking. The methods included: Bayesian
conditional probability, Dempster-Shafer statistics.
It should be noted that throughout many of these accomplishments,
I had the help and leadership of a lot of wonderful, dedicated people.
Many, many thanks are due to all of them.
2.7 Gerald Pickering,
I am very proud of my 32 ½ years with Univac. It is the only company
I ever worked for. By and large I felt that Univac could accomplish
technically anything it set out to do; more than anything the United
Airlines Project was proof of that. I am particularly proud of my contributions
to NTDS, the turning of International into a profitable division, unbundling
the Univac product lines and in essence turning Univac commercial from
strictly a seller of hardware into a provider of system services.
I am proud to have ended my career with an involvement with NEXRAD
which proved Sperry was the provider of state-of-the-art system solutions.
Each and every time I watch a weather report tracking a dangerous storm,
I must constrain myself from jumping up and proclaiming to everyone
within listening distance: "That's NEXRAD at work. I had
a hand in developing it." A more complete ‘career summary’
is in the Article for the Month, “CREATIVITY-SUCCESS-OBSCURITY”.
2.8 Mark Plait, 1968-1989
I started with Univac in 1968 and worked in
Graphic Arts, Documentation Control, Configuration Management, and
the Trident program as a Quality Engineer during my tenure with
Univac/Unisys, until 1989, 21 years later. I greatly enjoyed my time on the Trident program working with
Bill Techtmann, Jack Lavers, Vic Patras, Bob Luken, Ray Doehling and
many others over the years. Mark Plait
2.9 Richard Prokop, 1963-1964
I worked at UNIVAC, plant 3, in St. Paul in 1963-1964. I did wiring
and rework on night shift. My boss was Merle Holger. It was a great
job. I often wondered what happened to Merle. I've got some pictures
and other stuff saved somewhere. We worked on the NIKE/ZEUS program,
you have an interesting web page. I'll be checking back. take care!
4. Career Summaries - Q:
4.1. David Quiggle, 1969 - 1996
I started with UNIVAC Defense Systems in Eagan in 1969 and lived
through all the rest of the name changes up through Lockheed Martin. I
left LM in 1996 having spent ALL of that time in the field working as
a Field Engineer supporting various Defense and NASA contracts. Consequently,
I had very little "face time" with the "in-house"
corporation with the exception of those folks I interfaced closely with
on those projects. Some folks I worked for over the years include
Jerry Sargent, George Fedor, Curt Anderson, Roger Feichtinger, Larry
Koral, Don Neuman and Dave Dzubay to name a few. Others that I
worked with include Leo Valley, Bob Kroeger, Jim Inda, Roger Engle and
many others too numerous to mention. Projects supported include
the RTS Satellite Control Facilities, NASA/JPL Deep Space Project, and
the B-2 Bomber. Work sites include field engineering support at
Palo Alto CA, Kodiak Alaska, Kaena Point Hawaii, New Boston New Hampshire,
Seychelles Islands Indian Ocean, Valencia CA, Pasadena CA, Cape Canaveral
FL, Cebreros Spain, Sunnyvale CA, Pueblo CO, Pico Rivera CA and Seattle
WA. As you may guess, my last service with the company (then Lockheed
Martin) occurred while in Boeing territory in Seattle. When the
B-2 project ended I was left with the choice of finally returning to
Eagan MN or changing jobs to avoid up-rooting my growing family in Seattle. At
that time, the family roots were set so here we remain in the Seattle
area.
I must say I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated my entire 27 years
with the company. It was a very gratifying job that afforded ample
opportunity for travel and worldly experience far beyond my Minnesota
upbringing and U of MN education. I keep fond memories of all
those I encountered on this journey. And I did work another 16
years with the Boeing company before retiring from the workforce for
good. Now I happily keep busy playing golf, skiing and still traveling
in my retirement years. It would be very hard for me to write
a better ending for this journey.
Please keep me on your non-member list as I will try to join in a
picnic or other activity whenever it coincides with an occasional visit
to Minnesota.
David M. Quiggle, Univac-LM 1969-1996 posted 12/17/2015
3. Career Summaries - R:
3.1 Jim Rapinac, 1961-1987
1961 to 1987 Career Summary. Corporate names were Remington Rand
Univac, Sperry Rand Univac, Sperry Univac DSD, Sperry DSD, and UNISYS
- briefly.
July 1961 - Joined Remington Rand Univac as Production Planner
for ADD, Advanced Digital Device, an airborne computer for ICBM guidance.
Project was later cancelled by the Air Force.
1962 - Assigned as Production Coordinator for CP-667 Program.
1963 - Became a PERT Planning Engineer under Lyle Franklin who
reported to Gerry Brings. I did the CP-667 Pert Planning.
1964 - Transferred to Navy Avionics Marketing and reported to
M. R. Clement Jr., who reported to Vern Leas. Assigned to ANEW, the
development program for a digital version of the P-3C ASW aircraft.
1966-70 - Group Manager, Avionics Marketing
1970-71 - Director, Marketing, Salt Lake City Operations
1972-74- General Manager, Special Programs, Salt Lake City
1974-1978 - General Manager, Technical Services Division, St.
Paul, MN
1978-1985 - Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Sperry Univac
DSD
1985-1987 - Vice President, Systems Operations, Sperry Defense
Products Group and later - UNISYS.
April, 1987 - Resigned for personal reasons. At this time I was
responsible for Avionics Systems, Surface Systems, Undersea Systems,
Ground Systems, Field Engineering, International Operations, and Canadian
Operations.
I served under the following DSD Vice President/General Managers
before resigning: Bob McDonald, Gerry Probst, Forrest Crowe, Dick Gehring,
Ernie Hams, Dick Seaberg, and Bill Geiger/Ed Decker.
Career Highpoints and Impact Items
1966 - Won P-3C CP-901 Computer production and operational software
contracts. Over 400 CP-901’s were produced. CP-901 was the first
high volume airborne computer on the market.
1968 - Teamed with Lockheed Aircraft and won S-3A 1832 Computer
production and operational software contracts, the largest single DSD
contract at that time.
1972 - As General Manager, Special Programs, Salt Lake City,
shut down unprofitable Sergeant and Shrike missile lines and focused
on wide band airborne data links and UAV microwave control and guidance
systems. This division, now part of L-3 Communications, is a leading
supplier of tactical data links with over $300M in annual revenues.
1974-78 As General Manager, led the growth of Technical Services
Division from a base of 300 professionals to over 1100 professionals
over 4 years with corresponding growth in revenues and profits.
1983 - DSD bookings exceeded $600 million and we won 5 major
new business programs over the space of 5 months including UYK-44 production,
UYK-43 production, Canadian Patrol Frigate program, AYK-14 second source
production, and CP-890 Poseidon Computer production.
Leading Technology Items:
CP-667 Computer Development: The U.S. Navy’s first 36 bit
military computer with 32 I/O channels and mil-spec approved wire wrapped
back panels.
S-3A 1832 Computer: The first and only airborne computer with
thin film memory.
X-Ray Enhancement Program: This program provided for early detection
of breast cancer using 1218 computers and Jet Propulsion Lab image enhancement
software. This system, located at the DSD facility in Valencia, CA.
detected breast cancer in retrospective studies of enhanced mammogram
x-rays 3 years earlier than with other detection methods. Program was
terminated by Sperry Corp. in 1975 due to potential medical liability
problems.
Canadian SHINPADS: The first shipboard digital data bus that
was used on the Canadian Frigate Program (CPF) along with the UYK-502
computer designed for CPF and produced in Winnipeg, Canada.
3.2 Jerry Raveling, 1976-1987
In July 1976, I was hired by Clyde Allen, Director
of Engineering Programs. His organization was principally responsible
for maintaining and enhancing the support software suite that was used
by the USN and our allies who used the AN/UYK-7 and AN/UYK-20 computers.
By that time, I had almost 20 years' experience with two large software
contractors working on military systems. I was familiar with most of
the existing military standards and specifications applicable to hardware
and software development and support and had prepared and implemented
without the benefit of software based standards, Software Configuration
Management (SCM) and Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Plans and Procedures
for several large-scale U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force systems. Shortly
before my job interview, the Department of Defense had issued DoD Directive
5000.29, Management of Computer Resources in Major Systems. Implementation
of the directive would require that computer software would be managed
as a Configuration Item (CI), and be subject to a disciplined development
approach equal to that which was required for system hardware. Software
was no longer going to be the forgotten step-child in the development
of computer systems, but would be recognized as a critical element in
the overall effectiveness of the system.
In the next few years, there was a virtual explosion of computer
systems initiatives. The USN and USAF published software development
standards which establish format and content requirements for software
requirements and design documentation, SCM and SQA Plans, and a new
software development life cycle. Software language and computer architecture
standards were proposed. Terminology for classification of military
systems evolved from computer systems to “Mission Critical Computer
Resources (MCCR)”. Computers and software were identified as crucial
elements in developing military systems which would compensate for the
perceived numerical superiority of our potential enemies by developing
systems that would serve as “force multipliers”.
New SCM and SQA standards were developed and published. The introduction
of microprocessors to military systems created management visibility
issues: Was the application hardware or software intensive? How would
the software (aka firmware) be documented, tested, and controlled and
by whom? The concept of conducting Independent Verification and Validation
(IV&V) or internal contractor V&V was adopted by various large
system developments to improve quality and system reliability. A new
DoD standard higher order language, i.e. Ada, was developed and proposed
to replace existing service language standards. The Joint Logistics
Commanders (JLC) became actively involved in defining requirements to
ensure effective Post Deployment Software Support (PDSS). NASA began
to move, for the first time, to establish computer software standards
to support the International Space Station development. The DoD published
their own Software Development Standard (DOD-STD-2167/2167A) and Software
Quality Assurance Standard (DoD-STD-2168). Finally, commercial off-the-shelf
hardware and software were making in-roads into military combat systems.
The latter development posed a direct threat to our core business of
producing ruggedized military computers and using standardized USAF
and USN software.
With the support of Clyde Allen, Dick Seaberg, Bill Geiger, Ed
Decker, and my supervisors from 1979-1987: Jim Kiwus [Product Planning],
Pat Casey [TSD], Neil Hahn [R&D Marketing], Bob Bro [System Design
Engineering], Jim Olijinek [System Development], and Dick Johnson [Planning
and Marketing Resources]; I was able to pursue an active role in industry/government
relations. In this position I was able to establish personal contact
with DoD, Services, and industry leaders. This allowed me to communicate
to Sperry Univac, Sperry, and Unisys management and technical personnel
the perceived impact of the DoD/Services computer resources initiatives
on current and future system development, contract management, and the
development of supporting technology. I was also able to distribute
review and final copies of applicable directives and standards within
the corporation and coordinate the submittal of review comments to the
appropriate government agencies. Further, I worked to try influence,
in a positive manner, the impact of the DoD/Service initiatives on our
short- and long-term business plans.
I was able to apply the knowledge I had gained in performing
these activities to the day-to-day technical functions I performed.
Examples: proposal preparation support, proposal Red Team reviews, briefings
to Sperry Univac, Sperry, and Unisys management and technical personnel
and to our current or potential customer base, preparation of project
SCM and SQA plans, preparation of a brochure and technical briefings
for Dick Seaberg in support of the benefits of USN computer hardware
and software standardization, participation in corporate task forces
including Future Systems Planning and Analysis, Technology Action Team,
and Next Generation Embedded Computer Task Force, and preparation of
an Industry/Government Network Plan to extend the corporation’s
involvement in current government/industry actions and programs.
My eleven year career with Sperry Univac, Sperry, and Unisys
from 1976 to 1987 were wonderful years. I was given the opportunity
to learn a great deal about the various aspects of the operations of
a large computer hardware and software company, to interact with a talented
group of upper and mid-level managers, and accomplished technical personnel
working together to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing computer
system development and support environment, to gain recognition as a
corporate professional and leader within the government/ industry management
and technical community, and to know that my contributions made Sperry
Univac, Sperry, and Unisys better companies: companies which made a
positive impact on the defense of the nation.
3.3 Al Reiter, 1954-1988
Al’s work history is part of two web pages which he created
beginning in 2004, we've captured them here in pdf format. The first
page is the UNIVAC I history from his viewpoint
blue page {Ed note:
Updated 3/28/2020}. The second page
is his relationship and the relationship of others to the UNIVAC I,
yellow page.
A most interesting part of history is contained on this second page: “Univac
II was built in St Paul, MN from a Univac I (serial #16) that was shipped
from the factory in Philadelphia to St Paul in 1955. That prototype
Univac II went into operation at Sperry Univac's Plant 5 located
on Prior Ave in St Paul. I knew three of the people that programmed
on that computer, Willis Unke, Bibsy Kinghorn and my late wife Mildred.
I still see Willis and Bibsy every now and then. There is a picture
of that Univac II in the Photo section of the blue page.”
3.4 O. Wynn Roberts
Mr. Roberts' career summary is 6.5 pages, too long to fit on
this page, therefore it is attached hereto as the
OWRoberts file. Names of the
people mentioned therein whom he worked with and for may be in the next
index update.
3.5 Dick Roessler, 1956-1989.
I am very grateful for having been associated
with UNIVAC/Sperry/Unisys (The Company) organizations for over 33 years.
It has been an absolute delight to have been deeply immersed in the
transition from analog electronics to digital electronics by our customers
and our company in this period of time. I’d like to summarize
several personal development opportunities which had a rather significant
impact on my personal growth and contributions to the company and the
community:
Farwell Electric Company – Upon graduation from high school
in 1947, I was employed by two brothers who had formed a small electrical
business in a rural community near Madison, WI. In this post Word War
II era, the United States had undertaken a mission and given a political
and economic priority to the Rural Electrification of America (REA).
This priority gave rural America an opportunity to recover from the
depression and war economy and to upgrade their farms. It also provided
me an opportunity to be involved in and develop skills supporting the
electrical, consumer appliance and plumbing needs of the community.
Lesson Learned – At an early age the importance of providing competent
and cost effective customer service was demonstrated repeatedly by my
employers. Not only was I learning the important elements of Ohms Law,
but also that providing prompt and effective service to farmers and
small town consumers, was giving their issues and malfunctions a high
priority. Technical competence and giving priorities to customers was
the daily mission. This two-year lesson in customer satisfaction was
helpful in my future career at The Company especially in customer service
and field engineering disciplines as a continued cultural theme.
U.S. Navy – In 1949 it became more obvious
that I needed to achieve some post secondary academic accomplishments.
School year 1949/1950, found me trying to adjust to the University of
Wisconsin-Madison by enrolling in their ILS (Integrated Liberal Studies)
program. That turned out not to be a good academic fit for me. When
the relationships between the U. S. and North Korean governments soured,
my interest in enlisting in the U. S. Navy was heightened. Navy recruiters
were anticipating military action and were trying to sell four year
enlistments to eligible men. My entrance exams were good enough so my
enlistment was as an Electronic Field Seaman Recruit. Boot Camp at Great
Lakes in the spring of 1950, was followed by Electronic Technician Class
A School. This was my welcome into the Navy. My first Navy billet was
a two year one as a Ships Repair Technician in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
functioning as a shore-based logistic resource for Atlantic Fleet vessels.
Upon successful completion of duty in Cuba, an assignment began as a
lead Electronic Technician aboard the USS Stormes (DD-780) which was
in a Destroyer squadron in DESLANT with home port in Norfolk. The fleet
was still trying to determine the dimensions of responsibility of Electronic
Techs relative to their responsibilities vs. that of Radio Communications,
Sonar, Radar & IFF technical disciplines. Lessons Learned –
This immersion in Fleet issues in the logistical support of military
systems was of great value in my experience base. It also permitted
me to become familiar with a new opportunity. Broadcast Engineering!
While stationed at GTMO Bay, one of my duties was to be the chief engineer
of a 250 watt AFRS AM station. The four years experience in the Navy,
were invaluable in my future assignments.
Technical College – With an honorable discharge
and the GI Bill of Rights in my pocket, 1954 found me enrolled at DeVry
Technical Institute in Chicago, IL. My goal was to graduate in two years
from DeVry with an Electronic Design Diploma and our FCC Broadcast Engineer
License added to my portfolio of experience. Spring of 1956 found graduation
from DeVry had been accomplished and our FCC issued First Class Radio/Telephone
with Radar Endorsement was a reality. Opportunities for career moves
into the electronics field, was a seller’s market. Pursuit of
a career in broadcasting was my goal. An NBC affiliate in Chicago offered
me a position assisting them in transitioning from Black & White
to Color broadcasting.
Lesson Learned – The curricula for the Electronic Design was
presented in a very structured manner. We had classes every day year
round except for a few days of no classes on some holidays such as Christmas.
This academic pursuit was an excellent method for a graduate to enter
and exit their Institute with a diploma in just over two years. Each
morning we had lectures on the curricula and the afternoon was dedicated
to associated Lab projects. Further, their approach was very systematic.
On each assigned project the following steps were followed: 1. Design
criteria was established and design completed; 2. Selection of Components
and Product build of project was achieved; 3. Product testing to design
criteria was achieved; and 4. Documentation of the product with diagrams,
test tables, etc. was criteria for instructor evaluation & grading
as project closure is achieved. Design of a B/W 21 inch TV was our final
lab project. We followed the 4 step process outlined above. This left
me with a good feeling for the value of good technical colleges and
institutes in society!
Why The Company – My offer from NBC for a career
in broadcasting was turned down by me after some agonizing hours of
evaluation. Interviews in Chicago by Convair’s; Martin Aircraft;
Westinghouse; FM stations in Illinois & Minnesota, General Electric;
etc. were often followed by job offers. But an interview by Roy Jampsa
of The Company in St. Paul was a turning point in my life. He offered
a position as a Product Test Technician for the Model 0 File Computer
being built in St. Paul. Lesson Learned --- The opportunity to become
involved in the digitizing of electronics was too good an opportunity
to pass up. The trade-off between Color TV Broadcasting and the new
field of Computers was a tough decision. But off to St. Paul we went
(Norma, and infant son Jeff).
Career Growth– My first day at The Company,
found Mr. Jampsa had enrolled me in a Model 0 File Computer class which
had started that day. It was held in Plant Four which was in the Griggs
Midway building on University Ave. This commercial computer was intended
to be an entry level computer possessing business capabilities. Our
instructor was “Stretch” Renecker who was a former submariner
skipper and filled us with his interesting WW II combat highlights.
We were studying the programming and maintenance of a computer which
had not satisfied sign-off criteria on its design! But my classmates
in class were techs assigned to field engineering and to production
testing. So because the design schematics and drawings were changing
constantly, it provided us an opportunity to review and understand the
impact for the changes! Good experience in electronic design analysis.
The Company Career Opportunities – Not enough
good things can be said about the career opportunities provided to me
in my 33 years with The Company. My company Professional Staff Data
Sheet lists 32 changes in “Title and Principal Duties” during
that career. This probably happened because of the rapid growth within
the computer main frame products and systems industries and the personal
experiences brought to the table. It would be boring for the reader
for me to even attempt to list them but I would like walk the reader
through some of opportunities and changes made: Programming & Maintenance
Instructor; Reliability Engineering; Field Engineering; Customer Services;
Operations Planning; Sales in Civilian Agencies; Systems Engineering;
Reliability Assurance; Field Operations; Product & Systems Assurance;
and a variety of Administrative, short term special assignments.
Memorable Specific Assignments
1. Teaching my first Computer Programming and Maintenance Class. Being
able to communicate the fundamentals of a mainframe computer to students
permitting them to understand the Boolean Algebra and Logic was a very
challenging first.
2. Assignment as Proficiency Test Engineer on Athena Computer. This
project was funded by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Command to develop
a proficiency exercising program for testing the pro’s and con’s
of using operational deployed weapons systems for training purposes.
Athena passed with flying colors because of its high reliability. Other
Titan contractors didn’t fare so well. Exercising operational,
deployed weapons systems was discontinued because of potential for serious
degradation of system performance.
3. Role in a leadership role in Field Engineering & Customer Service
departments. It was very gratifying over the years to observe the competence
and diligence of the many men and women that performed their various
customer support roles so effectively. In this I am not limiting it
to our St. Paul based pursuit of technical manuals; provisioning documents;
spare parts; installation design; technical support; test software;
integrated logistic support; technical training; etc. Gratitude is extended
to those personnel on-site at customer sites successfully integrating
and supporting sites around the world. Some very difficult tasks were
performed during some troubling Cold War years. Hats off to each one
of you…
Management Encouraged Volunteer Positions –
Beginning when R. E. McDonald was VP & GM, our company management
encouraged becoming involved in community activities. Feelings of management
seemed to be that even though our company did not have the local image
of a 3M, we could have an impact on community forums to bring about
social change. Frequently I felt as though my access by Jack Nichols
on community activities was part of the dual badge system! So again
I could bore the reader with a long listing of volunteer activities
during my 33 years. But I’ll send verbal accolades to the Bob
McDonald’s, Dick Gehring’s, Dick Seaberg’s, and Bill
Geiger’s who were avid promoters of the rewards to individual
volunteers, to the company and to the community for contributions that
time, talent and treasure made. And I’ll close by saying The Company
continues to support community activities by its continuing involvement
of employees but also the magnitude of contributions made by our retired
colleagues.
Post The Company Career – When leaving The
Company, I realized that at 60 years of age, there were many technical
and management opportunities left. Exploring teaching opportunities
at metro colleges and university found me being graded with + for subject
skill credentials but a – for Academic credentials at each of
the schools. Dr. James Bensen, of Dunwoody, learned of my interest then
recruited me to join him at Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis. My career
with them began as a volunteer in November of 1990 concentrating on
developing a five year plan and our operating plan for them. It was
his vision to apply successful business management skills to an academic
institution. From that time until my resignation from Dunwoody in 1997,
I had performed as an Interim Dean of Continuing Education and Corporate
Training; then as an Interim V.P. of Administration; followed by Interim
Dean of Instruction; and lastly as a Special Assistant to the President.
So you might wonder why Dunwoody? It is a Private, Endowed Technical
College with curricula patterned very much like DeVry’s. Lecture
in the morning and applicable in the afternoon. The experience as a
student at DeVry paid off but also the technical and business skills
of The Company.
3.6 Tom Rougier,
Lowell: I programmed the 1830 and 1830A at NADC and Pax River. The
1830 computer had 32K 30 bit memory that employed Brundy packs in its
design. I agree with Rapp that we had many failures attributed to Brundy
packs. I believe the successor 1830A (CP-901) did not employ Brundy
packs and was much more reliable. It had 64K 30-bit core memory. I was
not involved the hardware design or maintenance. So I'm only relating
what I was told about the computers physical memory. Both computers
employed the 1206 instruction set. The 1832A employed a more exotic
addressing scheme.
