Here’s a list of people who made significant contributions to the creation and
growth of the software products industry. We know it’s not complete and look forward
to adding other names.
Please note that, for now, we’re focusing on people who contributed to the
development of the industry prior to the advent of personal computers. That means people
who were active in the mainframe and minicomputer software industry prior to 1985. A
portion of this list was first published in Software Magazine, Vol 9., No. 4
(March Extra, 1989).
| Name |
Key Accomplishment |
 |
| Charles Bachman |
Invented database technology in the early 1960s |
| John Backus |
Developed FORTRAN for IBM (1954) |
| Walt Bauer |
Co-founded Informatics, the company which sold Mark IV, the first million
dollar software product, in 1962 |
| Bob Bemer |
One of the developers of COBOL and the ASCII naming standard for IBM
(1960s); inventor of the ESCape sequence, the universal switching mechanism for all
computer-controlled communications; inventor of the Picture clause |
| Jack Berdy |
Founded On-Line Software International in 1968; introduced first CICS
test/debug tool |
| Mike Blair |
Founded Cyborg Systems in 1974 |
| Fred Brooks, Jr. |
Managed the development of the 360 operating system software for IBM
(1960s); wrote The Mythical Man-Month about software project management |
| Walter Brown |
Co-founder of Atlantic Software (1968); principal contributor to
Informatics accounting packages |
| Richard Carpenter |
Founded Index Technology to deliver Case tools in 1983 |
| Glenn Chatfield |
Founded Duquesne Systems to provide productivity tools for IBM systems in
1970 |
| Aubrey Chernick |
Founded Candle Corp. in 1977; developed Omegamon, first realtime
performance monitor for MVS |
| Dr. E. F. Codd |
Inventor of relational database theory in the 1970s |
| Gerald Cohen |
Designed early non-procedural language; founded Information Builders in
1975 |
| Bruce Coleman |
CEO or interim CEO of more than a dozen software companies, including
Boole & Babbage (1971-1975 and 1985-1986) and Walker Interactive (1985) |
| Larry Constantine |
Invented data flow diagrams, presented first paper on concepts of
structured design in 1968 |
| Bob Cook |
Founded VM Software to develop software for IBM VM in 1981 |
| Rick Crandall |
Founded Comshare, one of the early time-sharing companies, in 1966; it
later became a software company selling executive support software |
| John Cullinane |
Founded Cullinane Corp., which sold the IDMS database system, in 1968; it
was the first software product company to go public (in 1978) |
| Peter Cunningham |
Founded INPUT, one of the first market research firms to focus on the
software and software products market, in 1974 |
| Robert Daniels |
Founded PDSI which sold project management software in 1968 |
| Tom DeMarco |
Case methodology pioneer, author and consultant in the 1970s |
| Wilfred J. Dixon * |
Managed the Health Sciences Computing Facility at UCLA which began
distributing the BMD statistical software in 1962. |
| Frank Dodge |
Co-founded McCormack & Dodge which sold accounting software in 1969 |
| Sherman Drusin * |
Established U.S. operations for CGI and Cap Gemini in the mid-1980s |
| David Duffield |
Founded Integral Systems in 1972 and PeopleSoft in 1987. |
| Gary Durbin |
Founded Tesseract in 1970; designed online, realtime personnel system |
| James Edenfield |
Left MSA to form American Software, Inc. in 1970 |
| Larry Ellison |
Co-founded Oracle Corp in 1977; pioneered relational DBMS |
| Dave Ferguson * |
Author, in the late 60's, of PI-Sort, the first software product
successfully sold against a free IBM sort program |
| Werner Frank |
Co-founded Informatics, the company which sold Mark IV, the first million
dollar software product, in 1962
•
Werner Frank Oral History
•
Werner Frank Autobiography (PDF 3.0MB) |
| Marty Goetz |
Co-founded Applied Data Research (ADR) in 1959; received the first
software patent in 1968 |
| Bernie Goldstein |
Founded Broadview Associates (1970s), the first investment banking firm
to focus on software industry mergers and acquisitions |
| Dr. James Goodnight |
Co-founded SAS Institute in 1976; developer of the SAS System |
| Burt Grad |
One of the members of the IBM team which developed the plan for
unbundling software from hardware in 1969 |
| Herb Grosch |
Director in 1960 of the U.S. government’s Center for Computer
Science and Technology (now called NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology) |
| Dr. Larry Harris |
Founded AICorp in 1975; developed AI-based natural language technology |
| Peter Harris |
Founded ADPAC Corporation in 1963 |
| Robert Head |
Founded Software Resources Corporation in 1967 to repackage and market
software developed by users |
| Harris Herman |
Founded Software Module Marketing in 1974. It was the first
acquisition made by Sterling Software. |
| Richard Hill * |
Co-founded Informatics, the company which sold Mark IV, the first million
dollar software product, in 1962 |
| Grace Hopper (deceased) |
Naval officer and computer scientist who developed FLOW-MATIC, the first
business-oriented programming language; conceived the idea of a programming language based
on English which led to the development of COBOL |
| Bill Hoover |
President of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) from 1964 to 1995.
Founded in 1959, it ultimately became a multi-billion dollar company |
| Dr. Jean Ichbiah |
Principal designer, Ada language (1977) |
| John Imlay |
In 1971, became CEO of Management Science America (MSA), the first
applications software supplier to exceed $100M in annual revenues |
| Ken Iverson |
Invented APL in 1962 |
| Doug Jerger |
Co-founder of Fortex, started on 4/1/70 (April Fool's Day), an early
accounting software products company targeting large companies with mainframe computers |
| Luanne James Johnson |
Founded Argonaut Information Systems to sell payroll and accounts payable
software in 1971 |
| Fletcher Jones (deceased) |
Co-founder of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) in 1959; one of the
initiators of SHARE and the SHARE Operating System (SOS) |
| Capers Jones |
Developed first large-scale estimating package for IBM (1972) |
| Dr. Kirk Jones * |
Pioneered business planning software; principal designer of IFPS (1975) |
| Peter Karmanos |
Founded Compuware in 1973; developer of IBM systems software, along with
Thomas Thewes, Allen B. Cutting |
| David Katch (deceased) |
Co-founded Boole & Babbage in 1967; pioneered performance management
software |
| John Keane |
Founded Keane, Inc. in 1965 |
| Lee Keet |
Co-founded turnkey systems, inc., which sold Taskmaster, one of the first
telecommunications monitors, in 1967 |
| John Kemeny (deceased) |
Invented BASIC in 1964 |
| Ken Kolence |
Co-founded Boole & Babbage in 1967, the first systems software
product company in Silicon Valley; pioneered performance management software; was one of
the 50 people invited by NATO in 1968 to found the field of Software Engineering |
| Elmer Kubie (deceased) |
Founded Computer Usage Company, the world’s first computer software
company, with John W. Sheldon in March, 1955 |
| Thomas Kurtz |
Invented BASIC in 1964 |
| Sandra Kurtzig |
Founded Ask Computer Systems in 1971; introduced first multiterminal
mini-based MRP system |
| John Landry |
Led McCormick & Dodge development team in release of Millennium
environment (1983) |
| Senator Frank R. Lautenberg |
One of the three founding partners of Automatic Data Processing, Inc.;
served in the U.S. Senate (D-NJ) from 1982 to 2001 |
| Dale Learn |
Co-founded Information Science, Inc. (InSci), which sold payroll and
human resources software, in 1965 |
| Charles Lecht (deceased) |
Pioneered compiler technology, founded Advanced Computer Techniques in
1962 |
| Dave Lowry |
Founded Data Design Associates to sell accounts payable software in 1973. |
| Mike Lyons |
Software re-engineering pioneer; co-founded Catalyst Corp. in 1979 |
| Carl Machover |
Pioneer in graphics and image processing techniques and consultant to CAD
and CAM companies |
| John Maguire |
Founded Software AG in 1971; it sold the Adabas database system in the
U.S. |
| Harry Markowitz |
In the early 1960s, co-founded California Analysis Centers, Inc. (CACI)
which developed Symscript, one of the earliest software products |
| James Martin |
Founded Information Engineering approach |
| John McCarthy |
Developed LISP language in 1958 |
| Jim McCormack (deceased) |
Co-founded, in 1969, McCormack & Dodge which sold accounting software |
| Dan McCracken |
Early application programmer and author of numerous best-selling books on
Fortran, COBOL and other languages |
| Dave McFarland * |
Founded Ryan-McFarland in 1970; developed COBOL and Fortran tools |
| Ed McVaney |
Co-founded J. D. Edwards in 1977 |
| Thomas Merrill * |
Founded Computer Corp. of America in 1965 |
| Bob Miner (deceased) |
Co-founded Oracle Corp. in 1977; pioneered relational DBMS |
| John J. Moores |
Founded BMC Software in 1980 |
| Gary Morgenthaler |
Pioneered relational DBMS market in the 1970s; while at UC/Berkeley,
developed Ingres; co-founded Relational Technology |
| Mario Morino |
Founded Morino Associates (1973) which became Legent Corp. |
| Carole Morton |
Software designer; led Dykalor information management system development
team (1975) |
| Boyd Munro * |
Co-founded SDI to market a spooling package for IBM DOS in 1968 |
| Thomas Newberry * |
Left MSA to form American Software, Inc. in 1970 |
| Bill Newcomer |
Founded Dylakor (1968) which sold an information management system for
IBM mainframes |
| Bob Newman |
Co-founded J.D. Edwards in 1977 |
| Paul Newton * |
Uccel development engineer, senior VP, Systems Development Division
(1968-1987) |
| Norman Nie |
Pioneered statistical analysis programming in 1965; founded SPSS (1975) |
| Tom Nies |
Founded Cincom Systems, which sells the TOTAL database system, in 1968 |
| Roy Nutt (deceased) |
Co-founder of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) in 1959 |
| Tom O'Rourke (deceased) |
Founded Tymshare, one of the earliest timesharing companies, in 1965 |
| Ken Orr |
Founded Ken Orr & Assoc.; developed Case methodology in the 1970s |
| Peter Pagé |
Developed Software AG’s Natural, pioneered 4GLS (1979) |
| Joe Piscopo |
Founded Pansophic Systems (1969) which sold the PANVALET, a source
program and change management system, and EASYTRIEVE, a report writer and data retrieval
product; both PANVALET and EASYTRIEVE were installed at more than 10,000 mainframe
computer sites |
| Jim Porter |
Executive at United Systems Int’l (1970) and then at Informatics for
insurance applications and the MARK IV product line |
| John Postley |
Developed Mark IV (1967), the first million dollar software product, for
Informatics |
| Dr. Leon Presser |
Founded Softool Corp. in 1977; developed source program management tool
for IBM mainframes |
| Merle Proulx |
Author of Uccel’s DB4 DBMS and UCC COBOL (1974) |
| Douglas Ross |
Developed Automatically Programmed Tools (1958), paving the way for
computer-aided manufacturing |
| Ken Ross |
Founded Ross Systems in 1972 to develop application software for DEC VAX
systems |
| Dr. James B. Rothrie * |
Developed distributed database technology at Computer Corp. of America
(1976) |
| Lawrence Rowe |
Pioneered relational DBMS market in the 1970s; while at UC/Berkeley,
developed Ingres; co-founded Relational Technology |
| Don Ryan (deceased) |
Founded Ryan-McFarland in 1970; developed COBOL and Fortran tools |
| John Sall |
Co-founded SAS Institute in 1976; developer of the SAS System |
| Jean Sammet |
Early language compiler programmer; author of outstanding book on history
of computer languages |
| Oscar Schachter |
Attorney for and then president of ACT, producers of major systems
programs for various manufacturers |
| Peter Schnell * |
Co-developed Software AG’s Adabas DBMS in 1969 |
| Larry Schoenberg |
Co-founder, in 1967, of AGS, a software professional services firm, which
expanded into software products and distribution during the late 1970s and 1980s |
| Dr. Harold Schwenk, Jr. * |
Founded BGS Systems in 1975; developed performance management, capacity
planning tools |
| J. Gregory Siemon * |
Father of DASD technology, wrote first DASD management program; founded
Tower Systems International (1972) |
| Roger J. Sippl |
Founded Informix in 1980; developed DBMS application tools |
| Michael Stonebraker |
Pioneered relational DBMS market in the 1970s; while at UC/Berkeley,
developed Ingres; co-founded Relational Technology |
| Aso Tavitian |
Co-founded Syncsort in 1969 |
| Dick Thatcher |
Co-founded Atlantic Software (1968) which sold project management
software |
| Jack van Kinsberger * |
Member of IBM’s 360 operating system design team in 1967; technical
VP at Boole & Babbage |
| Frank Wagner |
Co-founded Informatics, the company which sold Mark IV, the first million
dollar software product, in 1962 |
| Jeff Walker |
Founded Walker Interactive Systems in 1971 |
| Charles Wang |
Founded Computer Associates (1975), first software company to exceed
$500M |
| Bill Watson * |
Founded Software International to sell general ledger software (early
1970s) |
| Bob Weissman |
President of National CSS when it was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet;
subsequently became President of D&B |
| Larry Welke |
Founded the ICP Quarterly, a catalog of software products, first
published in January, 1967 |
| Duane Whitlow |
Developed Syncsort in the late 1960s to compete with IBM's sort and other
sort programs |
| Hugh Williams (deceased) |
One of the members of the IBM team which developed the plan for
unbundling software from hardware in 1969 |
| Sterling Williams |
Co-founded Sterling Software in 1981 |
| Eugene Wong |
Pioneered relational DBMS market in the 1970s; while at UC/Berkeley,
developed Ingres; co-founded Relational Technology |
| Sam Wyly |
Co-founded and financed Sterling Software in 1981 |
| Ed Yourdon |
Developed the concept of structured programming, Case methodologies
(1976) |
