Mr. Robert L. Patrick

He entered the computer field in 195. While at Convair, in Ft. Worth, Texas he studied the industrial engineering work of pioneer Henry L. Gantt , ran some experiments, and had some ideas about more efficient computer operations. After he moved to General Motors Research he produced the conceptual design) for a non-stop multi-user operating system as part of GMR's plan for the installation of an IBM 704 supported by standalone card-to-tape and tape-to-print peripheral subsystems to handle basic input-output. His design was presented at SHARE, and resulted in a joint operating system development project between GMR and North American Aviation. The planned system was tape based and had three phases: Input Translation, Compute, and Output Translation. George Ryckman led the GM effort. Jim Fishman, Don Harroff, and Floyd Livermore did the programming. The NAA effort was led by Owen Mock who had participated in the Los Angeles PACT effort for the 701. His work is described in a 1987 National Computer Conference paper. For a number of years he has been involved in volunteer activities at the Computer History Museum. Other aspects of his extensive career are discussed in the Annals of the History of Computing paper and in a 2006 Oral History).