[IP] Bob O. Evans -- A memory from his secretary
Begin forwarded message:
From: Patsyc97@xxxxxxx
Date: September 17, 2004 6:33:23 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Patsyc97@xxxxxxx
Subject: Bob O. Evans -- Updated Copy
Dave --
In checking out the Interesting People Messages, I thought I would
send you some of my stories when I was a secretary to Bo Evans at IBM
Poughkeepsie. He was a great person to work for a a great asset to the
IBM Corporation.
Patsy Newman Costello
Hyde Park, NY
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MJV99@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, weissfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
NY Times -- Obituaries -- Sept. 6, 2004
Bob O. Evans, IBM mainframe pioneer, dies at 77
Steven Musil, Staff Writer, CNET News.com
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Published: September 6, 2004
Bob O. Evans, an IBM computer scientist who helped to develop the
modern mainframe computer, died Thursday. He was 77.
Evans died of heart failure at his home in the San Francisco suburb of
Hillsborough, his son Robert Evans said.
Evans began working at IBM in 1951 as a junior engineer after earning
a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State
University. When he retired from IBM 33 years later, he was vice
president of engineering, programming and technology for the
Corporation.
In the 1960s, Evans led a team that developed a new class of mainframe
computers called the System/360, or S/360, which allowed different
applications to be run simultaneously. IBM invested $5 billion in the
project at a time when the company's annual revenue came to $3.2
billion.
"Prior to the S/360, each computer was a unique system. They were made
to an individual customer's order, and there was no continuity from
design to design," Colette Martin, the director of zSeries products for
IBM, told CNET News.com before the mainframe's 40th anniversary in
April. "Prior to the S/360, they were single-application systems."
The architecture introduced in the S/360 is still in use in IBM
mainframes.
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan recognized Evans' work on the project
with the National Medal of Technology. In 1991, he was presented with a
Computer Pioneer Award from the Computing Society of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
From 1981 to 1995, Evans acted as a chief science adviser to the
government of Taiwan, and later helped to start Taiwan's Vanguard
International Semiconductor Corp.
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(note from Patsy Newman Costello)
I was secretary to Bo Evans in Poughkeepsie when he came down from
Endicott on the 1410 Transfer. He was the Systems Planning and
Development Manager at the South Road Lab and had 1400 people under him
in Poughkeepsie, Endicott, Yorktown, and the Time & Life Bldg. in NYC.
When he came to Poughkeepsie, he asked the Personnel Manager, "If your
secretary were leaving tomorrow, who would you get to replace her?"
John Isaacson's answer was me...and that's how I got the job.
Bob Evans only slept four hours each night, and worked the other 20
hours. Needless to say, we needed two additional secretaries in the
office just to keep up with him.
He was responsible for the first STRETCH System that went to NASA at
LosAlamos, New Mexico, and I had my picture taken by that system.
Bob had a photographical memory and never forgot names. One time I
met a fellow who transferred from Endicott to Poughkeepsie who saw Bob
Evans in the hall at IBM. We were out at the Covered Wagon at a Wed.
night Young Adults of Poughkeepsie gathering. He said he didn't know
whether to speak to Bob or not, as he had only met him once in a
meeting in Endicott -- and at that meeting Bob was sitting in the back
of the room reading his mail. The fellow told me that the guy giving
the presentation was amazed when Bob told him that the item he was
talking about what not correct. They all thought Bob wasn't paying
attention. Anyway, the young engineer didn't have to say hello to Bob,
as Bob said hello to him first -- and by his name! That fellow was
absolutely amazed that Bob remembered him. But that was his nature, he
was always 'people oriented.'
My average work week at that time was 70 hours!
He flew his own Cessena 175 airplane, and I checked the weather
conditions and filed his flight plans. I remember the time I went to
pick him up at the Dutchess County Airport, and he motioned for me to
come over to the plane. We flew up to Hyde Park, circled my house, and
on the way back to Poughkeepsie, he said, "Do you want to go under or
over the Mid-Hudson Bridge?" I said, "Do you want to keep your pilot's
license, or lose it -- it's your choice." When the Broome County or
Tri-Cities Airports in Endicott were fogged in, he would drive,
dictating all the way to Endicott and pointing out the hot-spots along
the way...like "They are dancing up a storm at the Brown's tonight."
At that point I had to stop typing what he was dictating!
He also became President of the IBM Federal Systems Division in
Bethesda, Maryland, and as he was so valuable to IBM, they wouldn't let
him fly his own plane anymore. They sent him in the IBM plane, one of
which was kept at the Dutchess County Airport.
The last time I saw him in Poughkeepsie, he was conducting a Quarterly
Review of Joe Isole's Design Practices area. I was on a temp
assignment in that area, and when he saw me outside the conference
room, he stopped the whole meeting to come out to see me! He was a
dynamic person and a great asset to IBM and all who he met.
And now you know the rest of the story...
May Bo rest in peace!
Patsy Newman Costello
Secretary to Bob O. Evans
IBM Poughkeepsie -- 1960
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