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Browsing by Subject "Sperry Rand Corporation. -- Univac Division"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
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    Oral history interview with Carl Hammer
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-04-15) Hammer, Carl, 1914-2004
    Hammer reviews his career in the computing industry, including his work for RCA, Sperry, and Sylvania. He begins with his entry into data processing at the Columbia University T. J. Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory and his work under Paul Lazarsfeld as a research associate at the Bureau of Applied Social Research. He turns next to his employment beginning in l950 at the Franklin Institute. He discusses the industrial applications of computers, and collaborations between the Franklin Institute and the government. From 1955 through 1957 Hammer headed the European Univac Computing Center. He discusses interactions with U.S. computer professionals, the peculiarities of installing computers in Europe, and the differing effect of computers on institutions in Europe and the U.S. He reviews Sperry's merger with Remington Rand and the changes in marketing and other operations after the merger. He cites these changes as his reason for leaving Sperry to work for Sylvania on his return from Europe in 1957. Sylvania's MOBIDIC computer and the ballistic missile early warning system are described in detail. In 1959 Hammer joined the Surface Communication Division of RCA. He discusses the in-fighting at RCA after John L. Hammer became president in 1960, the resulting demise of RCA's computer operations, and his own return to Univac in 1962.
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    Oral history interview with Gayle Spiess
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-14) Spiess, Gayle
    Gayle Spiess grew up in Minneapolis and attended Valparaiso University (in Indiana), graduating in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. She had worked for Sperry Univac one summer during college, then after graduating took a full-time professional position at Plant 8 (Eagan, MN) doing programming for a Navy ship project. She notes support from her direct supervisor as well as self-study in 16-bit assembler code, which she used for more than a dozen years. Her working group was stable for 3-4 years, even when she physically worked on a top secret project in Building 6 near the original Engineering Research Associates (ERA) plant in St. Paul. Back in Eagan, she worked on a Navy communication system (NAVMACS) and assisted with warship installations in Virginia, Japan, and Australia. Later she did programming with the high-level language ADA as well as C, which became the dominant programming language. A major responsibility was software for the air traffic control (ATC) group from 1993 to 2002 (eventually part of Lockheed Martin), then first-line management and project engineering for ATC (2002-7). She discusses recruitment and characteristics of successful project teams and managerial strategies for them. She also relates observations about changes in corporate culture with the Unisys merger, Loral acquisition, and Lockheed Martin purchase. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Jane Hauser Pejsa
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-28) Pejsa, Jane Hauser
    Jane Hauser Pejsa grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from Carleton College in 1951 with a degree in mathematics, then took an engineering position with Northwestern Bell Telephone in downtown Minneapolis. Her supportive math professor, Kenneth O. May, helped her land a position with Remington Rand Univac at the original Engineering Research Associates factory in St. Paul. At Univac she worked with Earl Joseph, then later worked in General Mills’ government computing division with Francis Alterman, founder of the short-lived Advanced Scientific Instruments. After briefly working for a book publisher, she took a position as a FORTRAN specialist with Honeywell Systems and Research developing computing and guidance systems for the Space Shuttle. She offers numerous character sketches and anecdotes, which she has written down in an essay entitled Memoir of a Fortran Queen (2016). This material is based on work funded by the
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    Oral history interview with Jean M. Baker
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-07) Baker, Jean M.
    Jean Baker attended the University of Minnesota, majoring in electrical engineering with an emphasis on digital design. The summer of 1980 she worked for Honeywell (St. Louis Park, MN) on ring laser gyroscopes. Graduating in 1981 she took a job in the defense systems division of Sperry Rand, working in Eagan, Minnesota, to develop computers for the US Navy. Her technical work focused on gate arrays for input-output cards, including the UYK-43 computer. After working part-time while raising small children, she moved to a new job at LSI Logic (1995-2009) working on ASICs for IBM, HP, Lexmark, and Seagate then moving into management. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Lonni J. Wersal
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-14) Wersal, Lonni J.
    Lonni Wersal graduated from Highland Park High School in 1975, then took an entry-level clerical position at Sperry in Eagan, Minnesota, in 1977. With her manager’s encouragement, she took programming classes at St. Paul Vo-Tech. She subsequently worked in a variety of positions, as administrator for software engineering for UYK-20 (1981-89), as technical and programmatic support for several Navy projects including Aegis (1989-94), and as product manager for the Q-70 program (1994-2002), one of the Navy’s first Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) projects. She describes reporting requirements to the Navy during the several corporate transitions (Unisys to Lockheed Martin) as well as her move to Dahlgren, Virginia, in 2002 to work at a Navy Aegis program office. She discusses informal networks of women at Lockheed Martin. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Lynne Anderson
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-11-12) Anderson, Lynne
    Lynne Anderson grew up in Moorhead, Minnesota, and graduated in 1985 with an electrical engineering degree from North Dakota State University. She joined Sperry (later Lockheed Martin) working at Plant 8 in Eagan, Minnesota (where she worked for 28 years). She joined an electrical engineering design group, and worked on a variety of military aircraft and avionics projects, including the F-4, P-3, P-4 and others. She offers a close description of the design and specification-writing processes, along with the design reviews that accompanied these projects. She discusses her experiences in working with male-heavy teams as well as the characteristics of effective project management. She rotated through several high-profile areas, including cost engineering, project engineering, and program management that gave her wide insight into Sperry/Lockheed projects. Much of her work involved proposal development and project management. Later programs she was involved with were the Q-70 and Joint Strike Fighter. She shares observations about the change in management style with Lockheed Martin’s ownership. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Mary Shutt
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-11-06) Shutt, Mary
    Mary Shutt graduated from Purdue University in 1980 with a degree in industrial engineering, finding it a supportive educational environment. After interviewing with a number of companies, she landed a job offer with Sperry Univac in the Twin Cities. Her first responsibilities were material-based planning and manpower projections, working initially at Univac’s Shepard Road factory site. She became a specialist with Univac’s MAPPER software, suitably modified to calculate real-time “what-if” scenarios that were useful in proposal preparation and planning (for example) for the UYK-43 and UYK-44 programs. Subsequently, she worked with industrial automation and factory design, then moved into proposal development, project management, and contracts. A major effort was the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). When Lockheed Martin’s Eagan facility closed, she moved to PDA which continued work for the U.S. Navy. She remarks on changes she observed in corporate culture with the Unisys merger and Lockheed Martin management. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Mildred Gignac
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-11-05) Gignac, Mildred
    Mildred “Millie” Gignac grew up in Carver City, Minnesota, then moved with her family to St. Paul in 1933-34. After high school, she worked briefly for the government then joined Northwest Airlines and became supervisor of the payroll department. She married a Turkish man, moved briefly to Colorado, then overseas to Syria for several years. She returned to the Twin Cities and joined Remington Rand Univac and became secretary to the director of financial control in 1956. She ascended the corporate ladder and eventually became Univac’s first female director (in 1980) with responsibility for benefits and administration. She discusses the several Univac locations where she worked, starting with the original ERA plant and the newer one on Shepard Road, both in St. Paul. After a tour of duty in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, working on information systems for employee records, she returned in 1974 to Univac’s Defense Systems division and the Eagan facility, where she continued executive positions in benefits and administration until her retirement in 1986. She offers comments on a set of Datamation advertisements from 1967. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Nancy Gunther
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-02) Gunther, Nancy
    Nancy Gunther grew up in Mason City, Iowa, attended the local community college then majored in mathematics (including computing) at the University of Iowa. In 1966 she went to work for Sperry Rand Univac in St. Paul. She worked as a programmer initially in Advanced Tactical Systems using assembly language and Compiler Monitor System for 18 bit computers. She describes and compares working conditions and company culture in St. Paul and also, from 1967 forward, at the Navy Systems department (Eagan MN) as well as in Montreal (1984-1987). Her technical work focused on operating systems and command-and-control systems for navy ships and submarines. She describes the culture changes with the merger between Sperry and Burroughs to create Unisys. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Patricia B. Myhre
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-11-23) Myhre, Patricia B.
    Patricia Myhre graduated from Creighton University with a mathematics degree, and then went to work for Sperry Rand Univac in St. Paul in 1976. She did software testing for several U.S. Navy programs, starting with destroyer warships for Iran and later the P3 aircraft. Myhre eventually moved from software testing to system testing, involving complex operational interfaces between Univac and other companies’ equipment. The interview discusses work culture and environments in several different Univac office complexes in the Twin Cities metro as well as with the corporate reorganizations (first, the merger with Burroughs and later the purchase by Lockheed Martin). This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Patricia Westergren
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-11-09) Westergren, Patricia
    Patricia Westergren worked as a program manager for Sperry Rand Univac and successor companies, after graduating from the University of Minnesota, working in the Computer Systems Division and the Air Traffic Control Division. She discusses patterns and expectations about women’s career paths, which she upended after completing an executive training rotation and then going in to Marketing. Much of her work entailed contract negotiations with other corporate units and external companies. John Westergren, her husband, comments also on her career and his observations about company culture. They both discuss work-family balancing. Later in her career she managed software development for MedNet. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”