Interview with Lawrence VonTersch on May 2, 2001- part 2/2
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click image to zoomLawrence Von Tersch graduated in 1943 from Iowa State with a BS in electrical engineering, after which he went into the Navy for several years. In 1953 he received his PhD in electrical engineering from Iowa State and then began working with computers at the University of Illinois. Dr. Von Tersch came to MSU in 1956 and founded and became the first director of the computer lab in the early 1960s. The computer lab consisted of a copy of the Institute for Advanced Study machine that was at Illinois and Princeton. It was a crude machine that took 10 months to build and was a vacuum tube machine. As an outgrowth of this lab, and in an effort to keep up with the growing computer demands throughout the country, a computer science program was created in the College of Engineering. In 1968, Dr. Von Tersch became the dean of the College of Engineering, a position he held until his retirement in 1989. During his tenure as dean, the college purchased a commercial machine (a solid state device) to replace the original computer because it could no longer handle the magnitude of MSU’s computer needs. Dr. Von Tersch was also instrumental in designing and building the new Engineering building, in greatly increasing the Engineering graduate program, and in creating a research area for composite materials.
Topics Covered in the Interview Include: College of Engineering; MSU Computer Center; Jack Shingleton; Department of Computer Science; David Scott
Associated Objects:
Interview with Lawrence VonTersch on May 2, 2001- part 1/2 May 2, 2001 Audio: mp3 MSU Archives and Historical Collections |
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Transcript of interview with Larry Von Tersch on May 2, 2001. May 2, 2001 Text: pdf MSU Archives and Historical Collections |
