Browsing by Author "McDonald, Robert Emmett"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1982-12-16) McDonald, Robert Emmett
    McDonald focuses on early computing activities at Remington Rand after discussing his own career: his undergraduate education in electrical engineering and business 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. The differences between commercial and government projects and the tensions between two divisions of the Remington Rand, Eckert-Mauchly and Engineering Research Associates, are also discussed. McDonald mentions the efforts of Charles Green of Sperry, who tried to integrate ERA into the Sperry-Rand organization after the Sperry merger with Remington Rand. He mentions the influence of outside consultants on Remington Rand and IBM, and the influence of ex-IBMers on the Sperry Rand organization. He concludes by contrasting Remington Rand and IBM.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Oral history interview with Robert Emmett McDonald
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-05-04) McDonald, Robert Emmett
    McDonald discusses the early years of Remington Rand in the computer business, including the management of Engineering Research Associates and Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company (acquisitions of Remington Rand), the rivalry between the two, their competition for funds, and their relations to the parent company. Other topics include the departure of ERA personnel to form Control Data Corporation; successful products; financial structure of Sperry Rand; collaboration with Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, and MIT on defense projects; Sperry's role in the 1969 IBM anti-trust case; and UNIVAC's involvement in the international market.