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Computer Engineer Wes Clark Dies at 88

Posted by timothy on from the let-us-now-praise-famous-men dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Wesley Allison Clark, a revered computer engineer whose work from the 1950s through 1970s underpinned the revolutions in personal computing, computer graphics, and the internet, died Monday. He was 88. Among other things, Clark was one of the two people (Charles Molnar being the other) who created LINC, the first mini-computer.

2 of 16 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    https://www.computer.org/web/awards/eckert-wesley-clark
    "Clark had a small but key role in the planning for the ARPANET (the predecessor to the Internet). In 1967, he suggested to Larry Roberts the idea of using separate small computers (later named Interface Message Processors) as a way of standardizing the network interface and reducing load on the local computers."

    A Brief History of the Internet
    "1967 - A man named Wesley Clark designed and presented what today is commonly known as the router."

  2. If nothing else ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Informative

    in a 1981 lecture, he mentioned that he had the distinction of being, "the only person to have been fired three times from MIT for insubordination."

    If for no other reason than this, this man deserves to be remembered. :-P

    one of the fathers of the personal computer... he was the architect of both the TX-0 and TX-2 at Lincoln Labs. He believed that "a computer should be just another piece of lab equipment." At a time when most computers were huge remote machines operated in batch mode, he advocated far more interactive access.

    I guess being one of the fathers of the personal computer is pretty cool too.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.