Jules I. Schwartz

Author of JOVIAL, the first computer software designed for use by the military, Schwartz composed this high-order programming language in 1959 for use in the electronics of military aircraft.

Born in Philadelphia, PA, and raised in Atlantic City, NJ, he received his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University. After two terms in the Army, he attended graduate school at Columbia University, receiving his Master's degree in 1961. While attending Columbia, he became acquainted with some early computing devices at T. J. Watson Center in New York.

He joined RAND Corporation in 1954, where he worked on the JOHNNIAC Computer, primarily in the development of utilities, and on the IBM 701, where major work was on the PACT Compiler (one of the early high-level language efforts). Schwartz joined the SAGE System Development (SDC) at Lincoln Laboratory in late 1955, where his major contribution was to the Lincoln Utility System. By the end of the 1960s, he was the Director of Technology.

After SDC was split off from RAND, he became involved with various system efforts, which eventually led to language work and the development of JOVIAL. JOVIAL (Jules' Own Version of the International Algorithmic Language) was the first computer software designed for use by the military. It is a high-order computer programming language similar to ALGOL, but specialized for the development of embedded systems (specialized computer systems designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions, usually embedded as part of a complete device including mechanical parts).

In 1970, Schwartz joined CSC, where his primary responsibilities were consulting, managing, auditing, and working on a variety of commercial and government systems. He managed a wide range of time-sharing and database programs and language systems, and in the process was responsible for the design of several general and special-purpose languages. Schwartz completed his career at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) as a designer of several programming languages for commercial and government systems.