Oral history interview with David L. Schleicher

Abstract

David Schleicher begins with a description of his background and education at Mankato State University (Minnesota), and provides details of his first professional job. He describes his early tasks at IBM, his move to IBM Rochester, and the management structure of which he was a part. Among the technical projects he discusses are the Fort Knox project, the System/38 computer system, the Silverlake project, and the various aspects of AS/400 development, including RISC processing and the AS/400. He describes programming at IBM Rochester over many years, including support software for manufacturing, integrated data bases on the System/38 and the AS/400, microcoding, and the Rochester Programming Center. Concerning management, he discusses the management styles of Tom Furey and Glenn Henry, and in a broader context, compares evaluation of personnel by managers at Bell Laboratories and IBM. There is some discussion of the patenting process at IBM Rochester. He ends by describing his role in the coordination of programming in IBM, his move to Austin, Texas, and back to Rochester, and his work on OS/2.