George Stibitz

Who is he?

George Robert Stibitz is known as one of the men who invented the first digital computer. George was born on April 20,1904 in York, Pennsylvania and died January 31,1995. George had three siblings: two sisters and one brother. His childhood was spent in Dayton, Ohio. His father worked as a professor at a local college, teaching theology. His mother was also a professor, specializing in math. Evidently, with this type of background, education was highly encouraged in his family. From the start of his childhood, George was intrigued but electrical gadgets and interested in creating them. George attended Moraine Park High School for the natural ability for natural science that he exhibited. In 1926, he received his bachelor degree from the Dension University in Granville, Ohio. After this, he worked alone as a technician at General Electric research labs for a year, then returning to Cornell University to begin his doctoral program. In 1930, he got his Ph.D. in mathematical physics.

After graduating officially, his first job was at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in NYC as a research mathematician. In 1945, he served in the National Defense Committee, and worked on theoretical work dealing with computation. He was emitted to the Dartmouth faculty where he applied computer systems development to a variety of things in bio-medicine. He officially became a professor in 1966.