Erwin Tomash (November 17, 1921 – December 10, 2012) was an American engineer who co-founded Dataproducts Corporation, which specialized in computer technology, specifically printers and core memory units. He is recognized for his early pioneering work with computer equipment peripherals. Tomash led the creation of the

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

and is responsible for The Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology and The Erwin Tomash Library. He died at age 91 in his home in

Soquel, California Soquel (; Ohlone: ''Sokel'') is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, located on the northern coast of Monterey Bay. The population was 9,980 at the 2020 census. History ''Osocalis'' was th ...

due to complications from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

Education

Born and raised in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

, Erwin Tomash graduated from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

with his electrical engineering degree in 1943.Oral-History:Erwin Tomash
IEEE Global History Network. Accessed January 3, 2011.

Early life

Upon graduating from the University of Minnesota, Tomash joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he worked with radar, and was awarded the

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

for his wartime activities. Following his time with the Army Signal Corps, Tomash served at the

Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak, Maryland, White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. The location is now used as the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Or ...

briefly, before joining the

Engineering Research Associates Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were ...

. As a research associate, he worked on developing electronic computers, including the ERA 1103 or UNIVAC Scientific. In 1956, he joined Telemeter Magnetic in Los Angeles where he became the company's president. He then oversaw Telemeter Magnetics' design of core memories for computers and in 1962 left Telemeter Magnetic, and co-founded Dataproducts Corporation.

Dataproducts Corporation

Dataproducts Dataproducts Corporation was an early manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment. Overview Initially known as Data Products, the company was founded by Erwin Tomash in 1962 in order to take controlling interest of Telex's Data Systems Divisi ...

Corporation was co-founded by Erwin Tomash in 1962, and specialized in computer peripherals, with a focus on printers. In 1966,

core memory Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), ...

was added to the product line, and due to its resulting expansion, the company relocated to Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1968. The company acquired Staff Dynamics, a personnel agency, and Uptime, a manufacturer of card readers; it also served as an incubator for Informatics, an early software company. By 1970 the company had become the world's leading independent printer manufacturer. In 1980 Tomash retired and Graham Tyson, already chief operating officer and president, succeeded him as chairman.

Awards/Accomplishments

In 1987 Erwin Tomash was honored by the IEEE Computer Society, and received the Computer Entrepreneur Award in recognition of his early pioneering work with computer peripherals.Past Recipients
.

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

. Accessed January 3, 2011. Erwin and his wife Adelle Tomash were instrumental in establishing the

, which honorably named a highly regarded library, archives, and a fellowship program after them, as well as the CBI Tomash computer history reprint series.Erwin Tomash: his life and work

IEEE Xplore IEEE Xplore (stylized as IEEE ''Xplore'') digital library is a research database for discovery and access to journal articles, conference proceedings, technical standards, and related materials on computer science, electrical engineering and elec ...

. Accessed January 3, 2011. Erwin and Adelle Tomash, as well as the Tomash Family Foundation, were recognized in a 2009-2010 philanthropy report by the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) as having contributed a gift of $1,000 or more to specific programs at the university.2009-2010 Philanthropy Report
.

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

. Accessed January 3, 2011.

The Erwin Tomash Library

The Erwin Tomash Library on The History of Computing is an annotated and illustrated catalog documenting a collection of books and manuscripts related to the history of computing. It was assembled, over the course of many years, by Erwin Tomash using his knowledge as a pioneer in the development of computers. The collection consists of over five thousand items from twelfth century manuscripts to modern publications, and documents the rarest items together with a series of essays that explain the uses of little known instruments and techniques that are discussed in the entries. Each entry consists of the bibliographic details, some biographical information on the author, a description of the contents, and illustrations of interesting pages and diagrams. The library catalog, almost 1600 pages long, can be found on the IEEE Computer Society website as well as the CBI website. A portion of the Erwin Tomash Library (post-1954 volumes) was donated to CBI and is publicly accessible there at the University of Minnesota. The contents of the Erwin Tomash library were sold at auction by

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in London in September 2018. The copy of

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

's ''Difesa contro alle Calunnie et Imposture di Baldessar Capra Milanese'' (1607), with a handwritten inscription by Galileo, sold for £466,000 (US$616,378).

The Tomash Fellowship

The Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology is awarded to a graduate student for doctoral dissertation research in the history of computing. The fellowship is to be held at the recipient's home academic institution, the Charles Babbage Institute, or any other location with appropriate research facilities. It is intended for students who have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the research and writing of the dissertation.The Tomash Fellowship

, University of Minnesota. Accessed January 26, 2012.

References

External links

Erwin Tomash Collection of Dataproducts Corporation Records (1962-82)

, University of Minnesota. Original business plan, publications, reports, organizational charts and employee lists, articles, and correspondence that document the company's growth and market position in printers and core memories.
Oral history interview with Erwin Tomash
Oral history interview by Robina Mapstone, 14 March and 5 April 1973, Woodland Hills, Calif.

, University of Minnesota. Tomash discusses his work with

(ERA), including the firm's management, the roles of William Norris, Frank Mullaney, and Arnold Cohen in ERA, Tomash's development of West Coast marketing for ERA after it became a part of

Remington Rand Remington Rand, Inc. was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington ...

, competition with

International Business Machines International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, the development of Williams tube storage devices and

, and the ERA 1103 computer. He also recounts his move to Telemeter Magnetics, later

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

Computer Products, the formation of Dataproducts Corporation and its subsidiary, Informatics Inc., headed by Walter F. Bauer.
Oral history interview with Erwin Tomash
Oral history interview by Arthur L. Norberg, 15 May 1983, Los Angeles, California.

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Tomash discusses his career, including employment at

(ERA) and the founding of

. He begins with his electrical engineering education at the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s and his subsequent entry into the Army Signal Corps as a radar specialist. Tomash recalls his departure in 1956 from

to Telemeter Magnetics, where he soon became president. This company manufactured core memory systems and one of the first successful transistor memory systems. Tomash explains how he used the organization he and others had assembled from Telemeter Magnetics to found Dataproducts Corporation in 1962.
Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology

, University of Minnesota. Fellowship is awarded annually to a graduate student for doctoral dissertation research in the history of computing.
CBI–Tomash Reprint Series in the History of Computing

, University of Minnesota. Reprints, with an expert's introduction, of difficult-to-obtain monographs, conference proceedings, manuals, and government reports. * Erwin Tomash and Michael R. Williams
The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalog

, University of Minnesota. Published in 2008, this 1600-page catalog describes in detail Erwin Tomash's extensive library documenting the origins of computing. The books date from 1180 to 1955 and include information about all forms of reckoning and other aids to calculation. Each entry consists of bibliographic details, biographical information on the author, and a description of the contents, and there are many illustrations of interesting pages and diagrams. Tomash's post-1955 books were donated to the

and are catalogued and publicly accessible {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomash, Erwin 1921 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American Jews American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni People from Saint Paul, Minnesota People from Soquel, California American electrical engineers 21st-century American Jews United States Army personnel of World War II Deaths from dementia in California Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in California