Clifford Edward Berry (April 19, 1918 – October 30, 1963) was an American computer scientist who helped

John Vincent Atanasoff John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist and inventor credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer. Atanasoff invented the first electronic digital computer in the 1930s at Iowa Stat ...

create the first digital

electronic computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', wh ...

in 1939, the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC).

Biography

Clifford Berry was born April 19, 1918, in Gladbrook, Iowa, to Fred and Grace Berry. His father owned an appliance repair shop, where he was able to learn about radios. He graduated from Marengo High School in Marengo, Iowa, in 1934 as the class valedictorian at age 16. He went on to study at

Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

(now known as Iowa State University), eventually earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1939 and followed by his master's degree in physics in 1941. In 1942, he married an ISU classmate and Atanasoff's secretary, Martha Jean Reed. By 1948, he earned his PhD in physics from Iowa State University. He died in 1963, attributed to "possible suicide".

References

External links

1942 and 1962 photos of Berry, Ames Laboratory Archive, Iowa StateAtanasoff-Berry Computer Archive, Computer Science Dept., Iowa StateJune 7, 1972 interview with Atanasoff on Berry, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
( ttps://archive.today/20240524174221/https://www.webcitation.org/5kwDlnDnc?url=http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_761599223/Dr_Atanasoff%5C's_Computer.html Archived2009-10-31)
"ABC - Atanasoff-Berry Computer", I Programmer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Clifford American computer scientists 20th-century American physicists Iowa State University alumni ElectroData Corporation employees 1918 births 1963 deaths