Atanasoff Dies At Age 91


by Skip Derra

John Vincent Atanasoff, the father of the electronic digital 
computer, died June 15 at his home near New Market, Md., 
after an extended illness. He was 91 years old.

As a faculty member of Iowa State College in the 1930s, 
Atanasoff and engineering graduate student Clifford Berry 
invented the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. The ABC was the first 
machine to use electronic switches (vacuum tubes) to perform 
on-off functions to represent information and do arithmetic.
But recognition for this achievement eluded Atanasoff for 
nearly three decades. It was not until 1973 that a federal 
judge ruled in a patent infringement lawsuit that Atanasoff's 
research was the source for most of the ideas for the modern 
computer.

"John Atanasoff did the same thing for computing that the 
Wright brothers did for aviation," said Ames Laboratory 
computational scientist John Gustafson. "He was the first to 
apply electronics to computing. He was the first to invent 
digital storage, or 'computer memory' as we now know it. The 
Atanasoff-Berry Computer was not just the first electronic 
digital computer; it was the first parallel electronic 
digital computer. In this respect, Atanasoff was about 50 
years ahead of his time."

"The basic principles of digital computing, conceived by Dr. 
John Vincent Atanasoff and first realized in his Atanasoff-
Berry Computer, opened the door for the emergence of the 
Information Age," added Arthur Oldehoeft, professor and 
chair, computer science. "While technology has (and 
continues) to change at a rapid rate, it is remarkable that 
these basic principles used to construct the ABC have 
survived the test of time and are still found in current 
modern computers."

"It's important to remember what Dr. Atanasoff did, he did as 
a teacher and educator," said President Martin Jischke. "He 
developed the computer as a tool to help his graduate 
students at Iowa State. Our campus-wide computing network is 
named 'Project Vincent' in his honor." 

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contact:  Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917
updated:  07-10-95