This is Tom Sawyer again, noting a new page added to my Burroughs 205 history website. There are many interesting people and personalities associated with the Datatron and one that has long interested me is Gloria Bullock. Gloria shows up early in the organization - even before there was an ElectroData. She is found in the Mathematics section of the fledgling organization, but there are references to her being involved with training too.
When I came across a 1959 Los Angeles Times story noting an Urban League award presented to Bullock by baseball star Roy Campenella, I knew this was someone I wanted to learn more about. I was a big "Campy" fan. The California Eagle characterized the award as being "for her part in perfecting computing machinery."
Last summer, I finally came across an internal Burroughs publication from 1957 that designated Bullock as the first Datatron programmer. With the recent publicity surrounding the movie, "Hidden Figures," I thought it might be time to put together Gloria Bullock's chapter in the Datatron story. (The book is much better than the movie, in my opinion.) The result is this page on the 205 history website.
My one regret is that I have not been able to close out the story beyond about 1977 when Gloria was living in Palo Alto near her younger sister in Moss Beach. Perhaps, as is sometimes the case, a mention on the Internet might turn up someone who knows the answer.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Revisions to the Blog Format
This is Tom Sawyer, posting to the Datatron blog after a long absence.
This blog has been very difficult to read from the beginning but the problem became terribly apparent after Paul Kimpel's lengthy posts about the 205emulator. I finally bit the bullet and made revisions to the layout a few days ago and believe we now have a much more readable blog.
I will attempt to make more frequent contributions of a historic nature as I continue to add to my ElectroData / Burroughs history website and I am certain that Paul will be keeping us up to date as he moves forward with his next project, the Burroughs 220 emulator.
This blog has been very difficult to read from the beginning but the problem became terribly apparent after Paul Kimpel's lengthy posts about the 205emulator. I finally bit the bullet and made revisions to the layout a few days ago and believe we now have a much more readable blog.
I will attempt to make more frequent contributions of a historic nature as I continue to add to my ElectroData / Burroughs history website and I am certain that Paul will be keeping us up to date as he moves forward with his next project, the Burroughs 220 emulator.
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