Eckert, J. Presper, Jr. (1919-1995), was a pioneer in the development of the modern electronic digital computer. He was the chief engineer on the project that built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), one of the world’s first general-purpose electronic digital computers. He also helped develop UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer), the first computer to achieve commercial success.
John Presper Eckert, Jr., was born on April 9, 1919, in Philadelphia. He graduated from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1941.
During World War II (1939-1945), the United States Department of War had a desperate need to quickly calculate the firing tables that gunners used to aim artillery. In 1943, the department accepted a proposal to build an electronic computer for this purpose. The authors of the proposal were Eckert, then a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and John Mauchly, an engineering professor. Eckert, Mauchly, and their team completed the machine, ENIAC, in late 1945 and first demonstrated it publicly in 1946. Later in 1946, Eckert and Mauchly founded the Electronic Control Company (later renamed the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation). Remington Rand, Inc. (now part of Unisys Corporation), purchased the company in 1950. Eckert and Mauchly completed UNIVAC while working at Remington Rand. Eckert died on June 3, 1995.
