The Paul Armer papers consist of documentation, subject files, and printed materials related to both his personal and professional life. Materials include journals, correspondence, handwritten notes, clippings, and subject files on technology, computing, and other areas of interest. There are also printed materials such as newsletters and periodicals, academic journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, and documentation from professional associations. The collection also contains photographs, VHS tapes, magnetic tapes, films, audio cassettes, and a CD-rom.
Biographical/Historical Note
Paul Armer was a pioneer in computing whose work focused on the relationship between computers and society. Armer was born in Montebello, California in 1924 and graduated from UCLA in 1946 with a degree in meteorology. From 1947 to 1968, Armer worked at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. For ten of those years, Armer served as the head of the computer science department. It was under his leadership that the institution built the JOHNNIAC, one of the first computers used for engineering calculations.
From 1968 to 1970, Armer was the director of the Stanford Computation Center. In 1970, he left Stanford for a brief time to join Harvard's Technology and Society program. He returned to Stanford in 1972, lecturing in their computer science department until the 1980s. In 1978, Armer went on to become the founding executive of the Charles Babbage Institute, an archives and research center dedicated to preserving the history of information technology.
Outside of his work in computer science, Armer was also an officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps and fought in the European theater of World War II, receiving three medals for his service. Additionally, he had a multitude of interests including bird watching, photography, and conservation.
After suffering from dementia for the last 10 years of his life, Armer passed away January 6, 2016 at the age of 91. He donated his brain to be studied at the Stanford Neuroscience Institute.
The Paul Armer papers consist of documentation, subject files, and printed materials related to both his personal and professional life. Materials include journals, correspondence, handwritten notes, clippings, and subject files on technology, computing, and other areas of interest. There are also printed materials such as newsletters and periodicals, academic journals, conference proceedings, technical reports, and documentation from professional associations. The collection also contains photographs, VHS tapes, magnetic tapes, films, audio cassettes, and a CD-rom.
