Robert J. Spinrad (March 20, 1932 – September 2, 2009) was an American computer designer, who was on the staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory and who created many of the key technologies used in modern personal computers while director of the

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...

Palo Alto Research Center PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...

Early life and education

Spinrad was born on March 20, 1932, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He attended the Columbia University School of Engineering for his undergraduate studies, where he was awarded a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, and was Student Council president and a Samuel Willard Bridgham Fellow. He later received a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degree at Columbia.Robert Spinrad

California Council on Science and Technology The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization designed to offer expert advice to the California state government and to recommend solutions to science and technology-related polic ...

. Accessed September 8, 2009. At Columbia, he built a rudimentary computer out of remnant parts from telephone equipment. He then attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where he earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in the same field.Markoff, John
"Robert Spinrad, a Pioneer in Computing, Dies at 77"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', September 6, 2009. Accessed September 7, 2009.

Career

One of "the last of the dinosaurs" created before the widespread use of

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

s, he developed a computer at Brookhaven National Laboratory called Merlin that was built using

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

s. Filling up a room, the computer was designed to help run experiments. After spending a summer with at

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

with physicist

Nicholas Metropolis Nicholas Constantine Metropolis (Greek: ; June 11, 1915 – October 17, 1999) was a Greek-American physicist. Metropolis received his BSc (1937) and PhD in physics (1941, with Robert Mulliken) at the University of Chicago. Shortly afterwards, ...

and his MANIAC II scientific computer, he returned to Brookhaven and designed processes to allow computers to operate scientific experiments with a feedback loop that allowed the system to modify the tests based on the results of measurements taken earlier in the test cycle. Described by physicist Joel Birnmbaum as "the father of modern laboratory automation", Spinrad wrote on the subject for a 1967 cover article of ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' magazine. Birnbaum credited Spinrad with recognizing the need to put the scientist into the loop between the computer and the laboratory equipment. Spinrad was hired by Scientific Data Systems, where he worked designing computers. When that company was bought out by

in 1969, he was part of the group that led the creation of the

(PARC) near the campus of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and was named as PARC's director in 1978. As director, Spinrad supervised the development of such products as the

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

computer networking technology, laser printers and what was described by ''

'' as "the first modern personal computer". As Xerox always viewed itself as primarily a

photocopier A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...

company, many of PARC's top scientists — and the innovative computer technologies they had developed — left the firm. With its research facilities and corporate offices located on opposite coasts, Spinrad would fly frequently between Xerox's corporate offices on the East Coast and the more loosely organized and operated research facility on the West Coast. Spinrad described himself as a "Superman in reverse" for his quick clothing changes into a business suit in airplane bathrooms while flying back East to visit the firm's corporate offices.

Personal

A resident of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

at the time, he married the former Verna Winderman in June 1954, at which time she was doing graduate work at Columbia University.Staff
"VERNA WINDERMAN WED; Columbia Graduate Student Bride of Robert J. Spinrad"
''

'', June 28, 1954. Accessed September 8, 2009. A resident of

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

, Spinrad died there at age 77 on September 2, 2009, due to

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(informally known as Lou Gehrig's disease). He was survived by his wife, Verna, as well as by a daughter, a son and three grandchildren.

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinrad, Robert J. 1932 births 2009 deaths American electrical engineers Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in California MIT School of Engineering alumni People from Manhattan People from Palo Alto, California People from the Bronx Brookhaven National Laboratory staff Scientists at PARC (company) Engineers from New York City Engineers from California 20th-century American engineers