Thomas Vincent Learson (September 26, 1912 – November 4, 1996) was

IBM 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 ...

's chairman and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

from June 1971 through January 1973. He was succeeded by Frank T. Cary. Both the previous chairman Thomas Watson Jr. and senior project manager

Fred Brooks Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing development of IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers and the ...

regarded Learson as the driving force behind the

IBM System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applicati ...

project, which was huge and risky but whose success ensured IBM's dominance of the

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

market. He was born in Roslindale, Boston, Massachusetts, son of Richard J. Learson and Katharine E. (Goode) Learson. He graduated from

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

in 1931, then majored in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, graduating in 1935. From 1975 to 1977 he was

Ambassador-at-Large An ambassador-at-large is a diplomat, a secretary of state, secretary, or a minister (government), minister of the highest rank who is accredited to represent a country and its people internationally. Unlike an ambassador-in-residence, who is us ...

for Law of the Sea Matters and Special Representative of the President for the

Law of the Sea Law of the sea (or ocean law) is a body of international law governing the rights and duties of State (polity), states in Ocean, maritime environments. It concerns matters such as navigational rights, sea mineral claims, and coastal waters juris ...

Conference, and Chief of Delegation. He died at age 84 and is buried with his wife Gladys at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, in Hawthorne, New York.

References

External links

IBM biography of LearsonTimothy D. Cook Net Worth
1912 births 1996 deaths American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (Hawthorne, New York) Harvard University alumni IBM employees Businesspeople from Boston American technology chief executives 20th-century American businesspeople Boston Latin School alumni People from Roslindale {{US-business-bio-1910s-stub