Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald, 1982 Dec. 16.

ArchivalResource

Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald, 1982 Dec. 16.

McDonald focuses on early computing activities at Remington Rand after discussing his own career: his undergraduate education in electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota and his graduate work at Iowa State and the University of Chicago; his years during the second world war in the Navy; and his employment with Northwest and Braniff airlines before joining Remington Rand's computer operations in 1953. McDonald discusses at length the Remington Rand organization: business strategies, upper level management, marketing, allocation of resources, product development, and the decentralized nature of operations.

Computer data (1 file : 75K)

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7885450

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Related Entities

There are 8 Entities related to this resource.

International Business Machines Corporation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6330m1p (corporateBody)

International Business Machines Corporation was incorporated in New York State on June 16, 1911 under the name Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. In 1922, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. purchased all of the shares of Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft. In 1924 the official name of the company was changed to International Business Machines Corporation. In 1933, IBM CEO Thomas Watson ordered the merger of IBM subsidiaries in Germany (Optima, Degemag, Holgemag, Dehomag) under the name De...

Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (Philadelphia, Pa.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jq5144 (corporateBody)

Green, Charles,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m33tvq (person)

Ross, James Baker,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61g3mh8 (person)

Remington Rand, inc

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w609019c (corporateBody)

Sperry Rand Corporation

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz38hg (corporateBody)

There are two epochs in the history of computing: before the completion of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (known as the ENIAC), and after. While there are several controversies about the development of the ENIAC and its immediate successors, there is nearly universal agreement on three points: the ENIAC was the watershed project which convinced the world that electronic computing was not merely possible, but practicable; it was a masterpiece of electrical engineeri...

McDonald, Robert E. (Robert Emmett), 1915-2000

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gf32z5 (person)

Sperry-Rand Corporation executive. From the description of Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald, 1983 May 4. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 63282977 Robert McDonald was born in 1915 in Red Wing, Minnesota. He attended high school in Minneapolis and took two bachelors degrees, business and engineering, at the University of Minnesota. He was president of the Sperry Corporation. He is a Presbyterian. He died on February 26, 2000. ...

Engineering research associates

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kt0r48 (corporateBody)

Early computer manufacturing firm. From the description of Engineering Research Associates records, 1945-1956. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat record id: 62435921 During the Second World War, the Navy recognized that the computer, with its ability to rapidly manipulate data streams, was a natural tool for encoding and decoding enemy messages. In 1944 and 1945 it sponsored a number of research projects in this area. Its most successful unit was l...