Walter Carlson interview: November 26-27, 2005; Los Gatos, California

Walter Carlson discusses his entire career in the computingfield. Born in Denver in 1916, Carlson studied Chemical Engineeringat the University of Colorado, gaining both bachelors and mastersdegrees in Chemical Engineering. On graduation Carlson went to workfor DuPont, where he worked as part of the corporate EngineeringDepartment to improve industrial processes in different plants. In1954 his involvement in a feasibility study to investigate computerprocurement won Carlson a job as Manager of Operations Analysis,heading technical computing for DuPonts Univac I installation.Carlson explains the steps taken to create the new installation,its staffing and operations, early computing applications, earlycompilers and programming techniques, and his involvement in theUnivac Users Association and the Operations Research Society ofAmerica. Carlson worked within the American Institute of ChemicalEngineers on a committee to explore mechanical computing. Carlson comments on the activities of a number of computingpioneers including Paul Armer, Willis Ware, Harry Huskey, FredGruenberger, Isaac Auerbach, Herb Grosch, Richard G Canning, GeorgeGlaser and John Postely. His involvement in computing led Carlsonto the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Carlson sawhimself as representing the broader world of industrial andadministrative computer use, against the predominantly academictraditions of the association. In 1960 and 61 he was involved inits establishment of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to support thecreation of a SIG in Business Data Processing. He was one of thefounders of AFIPS, the American Federation of InformationProcessing Societies, serving as an ACM representative. Carlsondiscusses its origins and development, including its 1970shistorical program with the Smithsonian. In 1968 Carlson waselected Vice President of ACM and in 1970 President. He exploreshis achievements and failures as leader, including a restructuringand downsizing of the headquarters staff, the improvement ofrelations with the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA), afailed initiative to greatly increase the size and scope of theACM, and an ambitious reform agenda for the associations governmentthat was scupped by lack of support from ACM Council members.Carlson explores his relations with Bob Bemer, Jean Sammet, AnthonyRalston, Frederick Gordon Smith, Bernie Galler and other prominentACM figures. Carlsons other main interest has been the handling ofengineering and scientific information. After serving on a JointEngineering Council committee devoted to the topic in the early1960s, he was hired by the Defense Department in 1963 to run itsnewly created Office of Technical Information. Carlson describeshis work at the Pentagon to improve technical informationprocedures, and his related involvement in COSATI (the Committee onScientific and Technical Information) and his attitudes toward ASIS(the American Society for Information Science). After leaving theDefense Department in 1967, Carlson worked at IBM until hisretirement in 1985 where he served as a staff expert mediatingbetween marketing and research groups within the firm to bringresearch to focus on customer needs.