Bernard Aaron Galler

Born 1928, Chicago, Ill.; significant contributor to early programming language development and, as key leader in computer organizations, provided direction to the academic and industrial field; with Bruce Arden and Robert Graham, developed the programming language ALAD -- Michigan Algorithm Decoder -- a "take-off" on the international language Algol.

Education: BS, University of Chicago, 1947; MA, University of California at Los Angeles, 1949; PhD, mathematical logic, University of Chicago, 1955.

Professional Experience: faculty member, University of Michigan, 1955-present; president, ACM, 1968-1970; founding editor-in-chief, AMPS Annals of the History of Computing, 1979; CSNET Executive Committee, 1988-1989.

Honors and Awards: ACM Distinguished Service Award, 1980; AFIPS Distinguished Service Award, 1984.

Early computer scientist responsible for the Michigan Algorithmic Decoder (MAD) which, for a period, was the most commonly used language system on IBM large-scale machines.

QUOTATION

Regarding contents of theses: "Don't evaluate your own work, other people will do that!"

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Significant Publications

Galler, B. A., The Language of Computers, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962.

Galler, B. A., and A. J.. Perlis, A View of Programming Languages, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1970.

UPDATES

Bernie Galler died September 4, 2006 (MRW, 2012)

Bernie was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Annals of the History of Computing. (MRW, 2013)