Information Technology Pioneers

Retirees and former employees of UNISYS, Lockheed Martin, and Twin Cities heritage companies.
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 Legacy Project Committee
Co-Chairs  John Westergren, LMCO Staff               -       Lowell Benson, VIP Club 2011 President

  

2012 committee meetings at LMCO, 1 p.m. in the East Lobby on Jan 4, Mar 7, May 2, Sept 5, and Nov 7.   

 

We formed the initial committee in October 2005, then met with the Charles Babbage Institute in January 2006.  We started a web site in March 2006, merged with the VIP Club site in March 2007.  The Committee and project have three priority objectives:

  • to capture whatever remaining material and information we can,  

  • to catalog and archive all the material collected, and 

  • to publish/publicize our history and heritage in a way that interests others within our industry and our fellow Minnesotans.

 

Page 13 updated Saturday, December 31, 2011

 

1.0 Legacy Project Results

 

  • Gathered over 300 topical articles and career summaries for web site use.  
  •  
     Conducted oral/video interviews with about three dozen retired persons. 
  •  Gathered numerous documents from retirees.
  •  Cataloged 40 boxes of patent dockets before transferring them to the Charles Babbage Institute. 
  •  Gathered numerous hardware artifacts including models, plaques, components, printed circuit cards, computers, ... 
  •  Published "The Fred Hargesheimer Story." for local distribution and web viewing. 
  •  Transferred all collected articles and career summaries from Lowell Benson's personal web site to the VIP Club's new web site. 
  •  Created new genealogy charts from old combined and defense charts plus modern information - see computers page. 
  •  Ole retired on 3/31/2008, John Westergren is now the LMCO focal point.  John has also replaced Lee Meyer as Executive of Interest as of July 15th, 2008. 
  •  Developed a technology history display for Minnesota's 2008 sesquicentennial Capitol Mall celebration.  Showed this display at Plant 4, the MACS building, LMCO, the Eagan Community Center, and the Minnesota State Fair.   Generated a report then placed the report and artifacts into the 2058 Bi-Centennial time capsule. 

  •  We setup then staffed a display of our History/Legacy booth items at the University of Minnesota's Computer Science open house on October 10, 2009 and October 14, 2011.

  • Displayed snippets of the IT Legacy for two 2010 semesters in the U of MN Walter Library.

  • Displayed the IT Legacy and NTDS participation during the 2011 50th Government ContractorAssn Forum - University of Minnesota. 

2.0 Legacy Future Plans

  

Harvey Taipale, Larry Bolton, and ... meet alternate Monday afternoons at LMCO to catalogue artifacts, documents, and photos.  Contact them if you'd are willing to help.

 

We've started outlining a book intending to eventually publish an anthology using items from the web site. [Lowell Benson]

 

We've begun investigating the process of developing a movie. [Harvey Taipale]

   

We're seeking contacts to transfer selected hardware artifacts to the Minnesota Historical Society, Eagan Historical Society, or other computer history facilities. [Bernie Jansen]  Possibly a new Air National Guard facility. [Dick Lundgren]

 

We're continuing oral interviews of  'old timers. [John Westergren]

 

We're investigating long term storage of artifacts, documents, and photos [Harvey Taipale and Bernie Jansen].

 

 

Earl Vraa led a group documenting the Computer Aided Design development at UNIVAC. 

 

Bernie 'Mike' Svendsen is leading an effort to document the history of semi-conductor developments in the Twin Cities area. 

 

 

 

 3.0 Committee Members
3.1 Current LMCO employees
John Westergren - Executive of Interest

3.2 VIP Club volunteers

Lowell Benson - Engineering Manager

Bill Bergen - Systems Engineer

Larry Bolton - Component Engineer

Millie Gignac - Human Resources

Quintin Heckert - Systems Engineer, Fellow

Bernie Jansen - Engineering Manager

Dick Lundgren - Instructor/Writer

Ed Nelson - Engineering Manager

Les Nelson - Systems Engineer

Anil Deodhar - Systems Engineer

Jim Rapinac - Marketing VP

Dan Rogers - Systems Trainer

John Skonnord - Publications Editor

Mike Svendsen - Procurement and Semiconductor Development

Harvey Taipale - Engineering Manager

Tom Turba - Engineering Manager

Earl Vraa - Engineering Manager

3.3 Current UNISYS Employee
Ron Q. Smith - Systems Engineer, Fellow
3.4 CBI Advisor

Dr. Tom Misa - Director, Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota