C. Robert Wieser

Designer and developer of the Cape Cod Air Defense and SAGE systems, which introduced the first concepts of multiprogramming and interactive input.

Education: BSEE and MSEE, MIT, 1940.

Professional Experience: Boston Edison Company, 1940-1942; MIT Servornechanisms Laboratory, 1942-1951; Lincoln Laboratory: leader, Cape Cod Air Defense Direction Center, 1951; head of the Systems Division (changed to the Data Systems Division in 1963), assistant director, deputy director, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1968-1971; director, Advanced Weapons Programs, Douglas Astronautics Company, 1971-1982; vice president and general manager, Western Division of Physical Dynamics, Inc., RES Operations.

Wieser worked with the Boston Edison Company from 1940 to 1942, after which he joined the MIT Servornechanisms Laboratory, developing in 1949 the application of the Whirlwind I to air traffic control and then air defense. In 1951 he joined the Lincoln Laboratory and was leader of the group designing and testing the Cape Cod Air Defense Direction Center, and preparing the operational and mathematical specifications for the SAGE system. At Lincoln he became head of the Systems Division (changed to the Data Systems Division in 1963), assistant director, and deputy director. In 1968 he joined the Office of the Secretary of Defense and in 1971 went to the Douglas Astronautics Company as director of Advanced Weapons Programs. Since 1982 he has been vice president and general manager of the Western Division of Physical Dynamics, Inc., RES Operations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biographical Publications

Everett, Robert R., "Whirlwind," in Metropolis, N.J., Howlett, and Gian-Carlo, Rota, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1980, pp. 365-384.

Redmond, Kent C., and Thomas M. Smith, Project Whirlwind: The History of a Pioneer Computer, Digital Press, Burlington, Mass., 1980.

UPDATES

C. Robert Wieser died March 1, 2011. (THVV, 2023)