Professor Daniel D. McCracken

A computer scientist in the United States, he was a Professor of Computer Sciences at the City College of New York beginning in 1981. The author of over two dozen textbooks on computer programming, his, ?A Guide to Fortran Programming? (Wiley, 1961) and its successors were the standard textbooks on that language for over two decades. His books have been translated into fourteen languages. He was born in 1930 in Montana, and graduated in 1951 from Central Washington University with degrees in mathematics and chemistry. He worked seven years with the General Electric Company in computer applications and programmer training. After that, he worked at the New York University Atomic Energy Commission Computer Center, and was a graduate student at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. In 1959 he became a consultant and continued writing on computer subjects. In 1970 he earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York. From 1976-78, he was vice president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and from 1978-80 he was president of the ACM, and in 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of ACM. In 1989 he received the Norbert Weiner Award for Social and Professional Responsibility from Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and is an honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society. He died peacefully, shortly after his 81st birthday on Saturday, July 30th, 2011.