Walter Carlson interview: November 26-27, 2005; Los Gatos, California

ABSTRACT

Walter Carlson discusses his entire career in the computing field. Born in Denver in 1916, Carlson studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado, gaining both bachelors and masters degrees in Chemical Engineering. On graduation Carlson went to work for DuPont, where he worked as part of the corporate Engineering Department to improve industrial processes in different plants. In 1954 his involvement in a feasibility study to investigate computer procurement won Carlson a job as Manager of Operations Analysis, heading technical computing for DuPonts Univac I installation. Carlson explains the steps taken to create the new installation, its staffing and operations, early computing applications, early compilers and programming techniques, and his involvement in the Univac Users Association and the Operations Research Society of America. Carlson worked within the American Institute of Chemical Engineers on a committee to explore mechanical computing.

Carlson comments on the activities of a number of computing pioneers including Paul Armer, Willis Ware, Harry Huskey, Fred Gruenberger, Isaac Auerbach, Herb Grosch, Richard G Canning, George Glaser and John Postely. His involvement in computing led Carlson to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Carlson saw himself as representing the broader world of industrial and administrative computer use, against the predominantly academic traditions of the association. In 1960 and 61 he was involved in its establishment of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to support the creation of a SIG in Business Data Processing. He was one of the founders of AFIPS, the American Federation of Information Processing Societies, serving as an ACM representative. Carlson discusses its origins and development, including its 1970s historical program with the Smithsonian. In 1968 Carlson was elected Vice President of ACM and in 1970 President. He explores his achievements and failures as leader, including a restructuring and downsizing of the headquarters staff, the improvement of relations with the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA), a failed initiative to greatly increase the size and scope of the ACM, and an ambitious reform agenda for the associations government that was scupped by lack of support from ACM Council members. Carlson explores his relations with Bob Bemer, Jean Sammet, Anthony Ralston, Frederick Gordon Smith, Bernie Galler and other prominent ACM figures.

Carlsons other main interest has been the handling of engineering and scientific information. After serving on a Joint Engineering Council committee devoted to the topic in the early 1960s, he was hired by the Defense Department in 1963 to run its newly created Office of Technical Information. Carlson describes his work at the Pentagon to improve technical information procedures, and his related involvement in COSATI (the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information) and his attitudes toward ASIS (the American Society for Information Science). After leaving the Defense Department in 1967, Carlson worked at IBM until his retirement in 1985 where he served as a staff expert mediating between marketing and research groups within the firm to bring research to focus on customer needs.

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

• General and reference

  • Document types

    • Biographies

• Information systems