Roy Nutt (October 20, 1930 – June 14, 1990) was an American businessman and computer pioneer. He was a co-creator of
Fortran[ As corrected June 22, 1990.] and co-founded
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...
.
Fortran
Born in
Marlborough, Massachusetts, Roy Nutt grew up in
Glastonbury, Connecticut
Glastonbury ( ) is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, formally founded in 1693 and first settled in 1636. It was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is on the banks of the Connecticut River, southeast ...
. He graduated in 1953 with a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in
mathematics from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in
Hartford
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
.
A pioneer in the fledgling software industry of the 1950s, Roy Nutt was a major contributor in the creation of
IBM's
FORTRAN, the first high-level scientific and engineering programming language. Part of the FORTRAN project's team, he was responsible for developing the computer command
FORMAT, which controls data for input and output.
Nutt also created an assembler for the IBM 704 mainframe that is today seen as the most successful individual programming effort of the 1950s.
SHARE
During this period, Roy Nutt met
Fletcher Jones when he joined with nineteen others from the aerospace industry to form the influential IBM user group known as
SHARE which developed
SOS, one of the first operating systems. Jones, as secretary of the group, became its national spokesman and their working relationship would later result in a business partnership.
CSC
Roy Nutt had become a widely respected
computer programmer for
United Aircraft Corp. in
East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aerosp ...
, where he developed the
Symbolic Assembly Program The Symbolic Assembly Program (SAP) is an assembler program for the IBM 704 computer. It was written by Roy Nutt at United Aircraft Corporation, and was distributed by the SHARE user's group beginning in 1956 as the ''Share Assembly Program''. S ...
for the IBM 704. He left in 1959 to team up with Fletcher Jones to establish
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...
(CSC) in Los Angeles.
Jones, who ran the business and marketing end of things, obtained a contract from
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
that gave their business profitability and respect within the industry. Nutt was responsible for building Honeywell the first commercial
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...
(
FACT) and oversaw the company's major 1961 entry into the space industry when they obtained a contract to support the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
's Flight Operations Facility.
Within four years of its founding, CSC became the largest software company in the United States. Taking their business Public company with an
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
listed on the
American Stock Exchange
NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...
. By the end of the 1960s, CSC was listed on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
and had operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, (Germany), Italy, and in
The Netherlands
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
.
Later years
In later years, Roy Nutt used some of his wealth to benefit Trinity College. He set up an endowment fund for a professorship and donated money to assist in the construction of the college's engineering and computing building. Trinity College honored him in May 2012 when they renamed the building the Roy Nutt Mathematics, Engineering & Computer Science Center.
Roy Nutt died of lung cancer in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington on June 14, 1990.
References
00
Further reading
* Pollock, John P. (1998) ''Fletcher Jones: An America Success Story''. Los Angeles: Pollock.
External links
Computer Sciences Corporation website with company historyTrinity College ME & CSC dedication program containing a short biography of Roy Nutt (by Micah Nutt)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nutt, Roy
1930 births
1990 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American philanthropists
American computer businesspeople
Businesspeople in software
Fortran
People from Glastonbury, Connecticut
People from Marlborough, Massachusetts
Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni
Deaths from lung cancer