Richard M. Bloch
1922 - 2000
Richard M. Bloch was born in Rochester, New York. Bloch studied mathematics at Harvard and entered the Navy in 1943. He met Commander Howard Aiken, while giving him a tour of the Naval Research Laboratory. Aiken had Bloch transferred to Harvard just as the IBM ASCC-MARK I computer was shipped and installed there in 1944. Bloch helped with programming and maintenance of the machine.
Bloch worked at the Harvard Computation Laboratory with Howard Aiken and R. V. D. Campbell. He became the chief operations officer of the lab. Bloch also taught programming to Grace Hopper, inventor of COBOL, an early computer language.
In 1947 Bloch left Harvard for Raytheon, eventually heading their computer division. He worked on the RAYDAC and commercial RAYCOM computers.
Raytheon sold its computer division to Honeywell in 1955, and Bloch became director of computer product development there. In 1968 Bloch joined General Electric as division general manager to develop large computer systems to compete with IBM.
General Electric eventually left the computer business, and Bloch moved into work in the private sector as a computer consultant.
Bloch invented the standard computer procedure for automatic-error detection known as parity check. He held the patent for the weighted-count checking system.
Bloch worked at the Harvard Computation Laboratory with Howard Aiken and R. V. D. Campbell. He became the chief operations officer of the lab. Bloch also taught programming to Grace Hopper, inventor of COBOL, an early computer language.
In 1947 Bloch left Harvard for Raytheon, eventually heading their computer division. He worked on the RAYDAC and commercial RAYCOM computers.
Raytheon sold its computer division to Honeywell in 1955, and Bloch became director of computer product development there. In 1968 Bloch joined General Electric as division general manager to develop large computer systems to compete with IBM.
General Electric eventually left the computer business, and Bloch moved into work in the private sector as a computer consultant.
Bloch invented the standard computer procedure for automatic-error detection known as parity check. He held the patent for the weighted-count checking system.
Richard M. Bloch, OH 66. Oral history interview by William Aspray, 22 February 1984, Newton, Massachusetts. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Available online <a href="http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/pdf.phtml?id=65" target="_blank">here</a>.