John Vincent Atanasoff, who invented the first electronic digital computer at Iowa State College in the late 1930s, died Thursday night at his home near New Market, Md.
Atanasoff, who died of a stroke following an extended illness, was 91.
Atanasoff taught at Iowa State for 15 years. He earned his master's degree in mathematics at Iowa State in 1926.
A professor of mathematics and physics, he invented the electronic digital computer for solving large systems of simultaneous linear equations. Atanasoff and one of his graduate students, the late Clifford Berry, designed and built a prototype of his invention between 1937 and 1942.
Atanasoff's computer was overshadowed by the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), a machine built in 1945 in Pennsylvania that was credited as the first computer. A federal judge recognized Atanasoff's work and voided Sperry Rand's patent on the ENIAC in 1973, saying it had been derived from Atanasoff's invention.
In 1990, parts of the Atanasoff machine were added at the Smithsonian to join the ENIAC machine. The narrative credits Atanasoff and Berry with building the first electronic computer.
The original computer was dismantled. ISU researchers are trying today to build a replica of the machine.
"John Atanasoff did the same thing for computing that the Wright brothers did for aviation," said John Gustafson, a computational scientist at Ames Laboratory who is helping build the replica. "Atanasoff was about 50 years ahead of his time. Only in the last decade can we appreciate his foresight and sophistication."
Gustafson said that no one, including Atanasoff, fully comprehended the invention. Iowa State never patented the discovery.
"In fact, Atanasoff tried to convince IBM in the late 1940s that he was onto something but received only a reply from IBM that there was no future in electronic computing. If that isn't a letter to frame, I don't know what is."
Arthur E. Oldehoeft, professor and chairman of the computer science department at Iowa State, said the Atanasoff-Berry Computer opened the door for the "Information Age."
"While technology has (and continues) to change a rapid rate, it is remarkable that these basic principles used to construct the ABC have survived the test of time and are still found in current modern computers," he said.
Atanasoff left Iowa State College in September 1941 to join the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, D.C., as chief of acoustics. He directed underwater acoustics programs and received numerous patents. In 1946, he participated in the Bikini atomic weapons tests and later served as chief scientist for the Army Field Forces at Fort Monroe, Va.
In 1952, he left government to form his own company, the Ordnance Engineering Corp., a research and engineering company in Rockville, Md. He sold the company in 1956 and retired in 1961.
The building that houses Iowa State's computer science department is named after Atanasoff. And the university's campus-wide computing network is named "Project Vincent" in his honor.
Atanasoff received numerous honorary degrees and awards during his career. His work was detailed in two books, "The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story" and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer."
He is survived by his second wife, Alice Crosby Atanasoff; and his three children, Elsie A. Whistler of Rockville, Md.; Joanne A. Gathers of Mission Viejo, Calif.; and John V. Atanasoff III of Boulder, Colo.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the Keeney Basford Funeral Home in Frederick, Md. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that contributions be sent to the Atanasoff Graduate Scholarship Fund, Iowa State University, Department of Computer Science, 226 Atanasoff Hall, Ames 50011-1040.
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