Item Details

Description

The Harwood G. Kolsky collection contains his personal papers accumulated throughout his professional life as a physicist and computer scientist. The papers are arranged chronologically from earliest to latest date of creation, and are mostly comprised of technical papers and reports, manuals, notes, promotional material, and correspondence. They relate to all aspects of his professional life. Most of the early papers document Dr. Kolsky's professional and personal experiences living and working in Los Alamos at the National Laboratory. The largest group of materials relate to his career with IBM and include technical reports and papers, brochures and promotional materials, as well as correspondence and notes related to significant projects. Projects documented include the development of the STRETCH (IBM 7030) computer, various computer simulation projects, and digital image processing projects. His professorship at UCSC is documented through campus publications, course documents, and lecture notes. Of note are his lecture materials related to computer history. Some items related to the IBM 7030 (STRETCH) computer have been scanned and are available on the Computer History Museum's website. Biography / Administrative History Harwood G. Kolsky, an emeritus professor of computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), was a physicist who became a computer scientist well before that field was a recognized department of academic learning. He worked on many early computers and their applications and architectures. Later in his career he directed a variety of projects involving programming languages, scientific applications, and digital image processing. Kolsky was born on January 18, 1921. He received a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Kansas in 1943. He was in the U.S. Army's Central Pacific Signal Corps from 1943 to 1946. In 1950 he was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University. In 1957, after seven years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he joined International Business Machines (IBM) working out of the Poughkeepsie, New York facility. He was a member of the product planning group for the STRETCH (IBM 7030) computer. In 1959, he became assistant manager of the IBM Federal Systems Division (FSD) office in Omaha, Nebraska. Kolsky was named manager of the systems science department of IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory in 1961. In 1962, he headed an advanced technology group in the Advanced Systems Development Division at Los Gatos, California. He joined the Palo Alto Scientific Center when it was formed in 1964 as manager of the atmospheric physics group. Later, he headed projects in programming languages, microprogramming, and digital image processing. Dr. Kolsky was named an IBM Fellow in 1969. He served on the IBM Corporate Technical Committee at Armonk, New York from 1974 to 1975. He was also head of the Board of Consultants for the IBM European Scientific Centers. He published over 30 papers and was a member of four professional societies. In 1985, he joined the newly-formed UCSC Computer Engineering department as a visiting professor. In 1986, he retired from IBM and began a new career as a full-time professor at UCSC. At UCSC, Kolsky helped manage research projects and taught courses in computer architecture and computer history until his retirement in 1996. Kolsky is married to Frances Cilek Kolsky, also a 1943 graduate of the University of Kansas. She taught high school while Harwood was in the Army. The Kolskys have four children and three grandchildren.

Level of description

Collection

Date

1943-1998

Publisher

Computer History Museum (Publisher)

Extent

26 linear feet in 20 cartons and one oversized box

Subject

Computers, Computer Industry, Programming Languages (Electronic Computers), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), IBM 7030 (Computer), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Supercomputers

Collection title

Harwood G. Kolsky papers

Credit

Gift of Harwood G. Kolsky

Catalogue number

102658131

Lot number

X3021.2005