The Resume

(October 4, 1903-June 15, 1995)
Born in Hamilton, New York
Professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University
With graduate student Clifford Berry, developed the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC; 1939-41)
Legally declared inventor of the digital computer in the patent suit Honeywell v. Sperry Rand (1973)
Received the National Medal of Technology (1990)

Why he might be annoying:

The ABC was not a programable computer, but was built for one specific function (solving simultaneous linear equations).
The ABC was never put to practical use, thanks to an error-prone input-output system.
The original ABC was dismantled with the parts, except one memory drum, discarded when Iowa State converted Atanasoff's old basement lab to classrooms.
Computer pioneer J. Presper Eckert said of Atanasoff's status as inventor of the computer, 'It's a complete joke.... He did some little thing which he never finished and which wouldn't have worked if he had finished it.'

Why he might not be annoying:

At age nine, he found and repaired faulty electrical wiring in a back porch light at the family home.
He was inspired to work on a computer because of the tedium of performing complex math on mechanical calculators.
During WWII, he worked at the Naval Ordinance Lab and after the war designed acoustic systems for monitoring atomic bomb tests.
Eckert's comments may have been sour grapes since his patents for the ENIAC and UNIVAC computers were invalidated in Honeywell v. Sperry Rand.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• An Asteroid was Named in My Honor (Ranked: 3546)
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 47]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [October] (Ranked: 10041903)
• Computer Geeks
• I Attended Iowa State University
• I Attended University of Florida
• I Attended University of Wisconsin-Madison
• I Died in 1995 (Ranked: 91)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Had a Stroke [Cerebral Vascular Accident]
• Inventors
• People with John or Mary in their Names
• Profiles 34251-34500 (Ranked: 34402)

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying