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 En ...

Fortran

Born in

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to ...

, 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 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 th ...

. 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.

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 A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/create ...

for

United Aircraft Corp. The United Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer formed by the break-up of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1934. In 1975, the company became United Technologies. History Pre-1930s 1930s The Air Mail scandal ...

in East Hartford, Connecticut, 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''. SA ...

for the IBM 704. He left in 1959 to team up with Fletcher Jones to establish

(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 A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

) and oversaw the company's major 1961 entry into the space industry when they obtained a contract to support the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory'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 known ...

. 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.

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

External links

Computer Sciences Corporation website with company history

Trinity 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

Fortran

SHARE

CSC

Later years

References

Further reading

External links