Josef Kates, born ''Josef Katz'', (May 5, 1921 in Canada, – June 16, 2018) was a Canadian engineer whose achievements include designing the first digital game-playing machine, and the world's first automated traffic signalling system.Engelmann, Frederick C. (1996) ''A History of the Austrian Migration to Canada'', Carleton University Press, , p. 184

Early life and education

Born the fifth of six children in an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-Jewish family, Josef Kates was the son of Baruch (Bernard) and Anna Katz (née Entenberg).Lumley, Elizabeth (2004) ''Canadian Who's Who 2004: v. 39'', University of Toronto Press, , p. 669 His parents ran a grocery store and an import-export business in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Kates fled to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to escape the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

in 1938 and then, in 1939, joined the rest of his family which had fled to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Kates enlisted in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

but, before he could see service, he and other Germans and Austrians resident in Britain were interned as

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

s."Computer pioneer named to Order of Canada"
Sep 30, 2011 by Lisa Queen, ''North York Mirror ''. Kates was deported to Canada where he remained interned for almost two years until he and most of his fellow Jewish internees were recognised by the government as "victims of Nazi aggression" and released."Josef Kates, 97, was a visionary scientist who believed computers ‘could do everything’"
Susan Ferrier MacKay, ''The Globe and Mail'', July 6, 2018. At the camps in New Brunswick and Quebec, Kates fished, worked as a lumberjack, knitted socks and studied for his high school diploma through

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

's high school matriculation program, placing first in Quebec's province-wide exams. After his release in 1942, he moved to Toronto where he met Lillian Kroch, marrying her in 1944. They had four children: Louis, Naomi, Celina and Philip A.Holmes, Gillian (ed.) (2001) ''Who's Who in Canadian Business 2001'', University of Toronto Press, , p. 421-2 He was educated at Goethe-Realschule (

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

: 1931-1938);

(

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

: 1941, junior and senior matriculation);

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

(

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

: 1944-1948, Honours in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

; 1948-1949: M.A. in Applied Math; 1949-1951: Ph.D. in Physics).

Career

Kates started his career working for the Imperial Optical Company of

in 1942, and was in charge of precision optics for

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...

equipment until he left in 1944. He then spent time working for

Rogers Vacuum Tube Company Rogers Vacuum Tube Company (formally named Radio Manufacturing Corporation Limited) was founded as the Standard Radio Manufacturing Corporation in 1925 by Edward Rogers (1900–1939) to sell Rogers "Batteryless" radios using vacuum tube technology. ...

, (now

Royal Philips Electronics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

), for the next four years in the development and manufacturing of radar and radio tubes. He then began work in 1948 at the University of Toronto Computation Centre, where he participated in the design and building of

UTEC UTEC (University of Toronto Electronic Computer Mark I) was a computer built at the University of Toronto (UofT) in the early 1950s. It was the first computer in Canada, one of the first working computers in the world, although only built in a pro ...

, the first pilot model of a computer built in Canada. Kates also built the first digital game playing machine, the 13-foot tall

Bertie the Brain ''Bertie the Brain'' was an early computer game, and one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. It was built in Toronto by Josef Kates for the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. The four meter (13 foot) tall computer al ...

, which was exhibited at the 1950

Canadian National Exhibition The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual event that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Canadian Labour Day, ...

. The game was a version of

Tic-tac-toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian or Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with ''X'' or ''O''. T ...

, with adjustable difficulty levels. The game machine controlled the lighting of an overhead display to show the progress of the game, and was built using a special electron tube, the Additron Tube, which Kates had invented.Simmons, Marlene (1975)
Bertie the Brain Programmer Heads Science Council
, ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'', October 8, 1975, retrieved 2010-10-31 The Additron Tube did the work of ten existing radio tubes, reducing the size and complexity of the machine. With the advent 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, which were much smaller and required less power, the tube was not put into commercial use. Kates also designed Toronto's automated traffic signalling system in 1954 - the first in the world.McLean, James W. (1966)
The Phony Ogre of Automation
, ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', February 26, 1966, retrieved 2010-10-31"Josef Kates Found Ways to Unsnarl Traffic and Solve Business Problems With Computers"
James R. Hagerty, ''Wall Street Journal'', July 27, 2018 Kates founded and became the President of KCS Ltd in Toronto between 1954 and 1966, which merged with the consulting arm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. to become Kates, Peat, Marwick & Co. in Canada, with other corporations in the US and the UK, for which he acted as a co-managing partner. He served as a computer consultant to many Canadian and American firms and organizations. He was involved in the creation of ''Setak Computer Services Corp. Ltd.'' (his last name spelled backwards) which was based in Toronto; it offered computer access and consulting based on Burroughs computers, e.g. the B5500. Setak's employee Barry W. Ramer later went on to found Barry W. Ramer & Partners Ltd. and Ramer Data Consulting Ltd. Management Consulting in Calgary Alberta. In 1974 he founded Josef Kates Associates Inc., for which he acted as president. In 1968, he was appointed to the

Science Council of Canada The Science Council of Canada (SCC) was a Canadian governmental advisory board existing from 1966 to 1993. It originally had 25 scientists and senior civil servants, later expanded to 40 natural and physical scientists, with the civil servants remo ...

, and served as its chairman from 1975 to 1978.Ottawa Needs to be Positive for Industry to Compete: Kates
, ''

'', June 9, 1978, retrieved 2010-10-31Cohen, Bob (1978)
Economic Summit a very vital meeting
, ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bo ...

'', February 11, 1978, retrieved 2010-10-31 Kates was also chairman, CEO and director of Teleride Sage Ltd. (1977–1996), and IRD Teleride (1996–1997) followed until his retirement. In 2014, at the age of 93, Kates designed a proposed improvement for Toronto Transit Commission subway system. His wife, Lillian Kroch, died of cancer in 1993 after almost 50 years of marriage. In 1995, Kates married his second wife, Kay Hill. Kates died in Toronto on June 16, 2018.

Honours

*Canadian Good Roads Association (now Transportation Association of Canada (1957: best paper) *

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...

(Waterloo: 1979-85, Chancellor;Benefits of Computers Cited
, ''

Leader-Post The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is the daily newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and a member of the Postmedia Network. Founding The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by Nicholas Flood Davin, soon after Edgar Dewdney, Li ...

'', January 18, 1982, retrieved 2010-10-31 1993: Chancellor Emeritus) *LL.D. (

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

: 1981) *Medal from the

Engineering Institute of Canada The Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) (French: l'Institut canadien des ingénieurs; ICI) is a federation of fourteen engineering societies based in Canada, covering a broad range of engineering branches, and with a history going back to 1887. F ...

(1970) *Julian Smith Medal (1977) *Engineering Institute of Canada (1990: Fellow) *Canadian Association of Management Consultants (1994: Fellow) *Doctor of Mathematics (DMath) (University of Waterloo) (2005) *Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

(2011) *Intelligent Transportation systems association of Canada Lifetime achievement Award, 2013

Organizations

Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto) Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) is a hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mount Sinai is part of Sinai Health System, Sinai Health. Sinai Health was formed through the voluntary amalgamation of Mount Sinai Hospital (including the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum R ...

(member of the Board of Governors) *Technion University,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

(member of the Canadian Board) * Donalda Club (Toronto) *Canadian Board of the Weizmann Institute (Israel)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kates, Josef 1921 births 2018 deaths Austrian emigrants to Canada Burroughs Corporation people Businesspeople from Ontario Canadian computer scientists Canadian engineers Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss Chancellors of the University of Waterloo Fellows of the Engineering Institute of Canada McGill University alumni Members of the Order of Canada University of Toronto alumni

Early life and education

Career

Honours

Organizations

Further reading

See also

References