Mr. James T. Pendergrass

Born in Bala Cynwyd, PA, he earned a B.A. degree in Economics from Cornell University and an M.A. degree in Mathematics from Columbia University before entering the Navy in 1941. His navy career was primarily in the cryptologic service. He spent World War II breaking the German U-Boat ciphers (naval enigma), ending the war as liaison officer to the British cryptologic organization at Bletchley Park. He was one of 28 students invited to attend the course, ?Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers? (popularly called the "Moore School Lectures") held at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania from July 8, 1946 to August 30, 1946. The course, conducted by John Von Neumann, disseminated the ideas developed for the EDVAC (then being built at the Moore School as the successor computer to the ENIAC) and initiated an explosion of computer construction activity in the United States and internationally, especially in Great Britain. This was the first time any computer topics had ever been taught to an assemblage of people. His report from that course and his subsequent leadership were instrumental in establishing the naval cryptologic services pioneering program to develop electronic digital computers. After a distinguished naval career he retired in 1965. He spent the following 15 years working as a mathematician at the Institute for Defense Analysis in Princeton NJ. His avocation was swimming and he was a nationally ranked Masters swimmer. He died in Hightstown, NJ at age 90.