Uri Berman worked with Pete Nordyke at Rockwell’s Space Division on a massive parts list application for the Apollo space capsule. They had the idea of separating the disk access and recovery functions from the applications programs which accessed the data. Uri created Data Language/I (DL/I) which was also used with the program when it was converted to run as Information Management System (IMS) for the IBM S/360. IMS became a major program product for IBM with many thousands of installations and Uri was given an Outstanding Contribution Award with a large check attached.
Read Uri’s article at the CHM main web site: The Birth of IMS/360