Herbert S. Bright

Born 1919, died November 28, 1986, Washington D.C.; developer of the first Fortran user program and consequently the recipient of the first error message; promoter of security through data encryption.

Education: BS, electrical engineering, University of Michigan, 1943; MS, electrical engineering, University of California, 1963.

Professional Experience: AT&T Laboratories, 1943-1945; research engineer, University of California, 1945-1950; head, instrumentation branch, US Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory, 1950-1954 [attended the hydrogen bomb tests at Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls in 1954]; computation planning section, Westinghouse-Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, 1954-1960; director of engineering, Data Processing Group, Business and Equipment Manufacturers Association (BEMA), 1960-1961; Philco-Ford, 1961-1965; director, Systems Programming and senior staff consultant, Informatics, 1965-1966; president, Computation Planning Corp., 1966-1986.

Bright was president of Computation Planning, Inc., developer and vendor of cryptographic and related software, hardware, and processes, from 1966. He served ACM in several appointive offices and as Council member-at-large, secretary, and vice president. He was a principal member of the American Bankers Association/ANSI X9E9 Working Group on Financial Institution Cryptographic and Authentication Key Management. Bright published 34 technical papers, articles, and book chapters and held (as co-inventor) one US patent, "DP Security System."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biographical

Anon., "Herbert Samuel Bright," Ann. Hist. Comp., Vol. 10, No. 3, 1988, pp. 217-218.

Bright, Herbert, "Fortran comes to Westinghouse-Bettis," Ann. Hist. Comp., Vol. 1, No. 1, 1979, p. 72.