1919-1995

American Computer Engineer

J. Presper Eckert was a pioneer of modern computer engineering. He served as the lead designer of the ENIAC, the world's first general purpose electronic digital computer. He founded, along with John W. Mauchly (1907-1980), the nation's first commercial computer company.

John Presper Eckert Jr. was born in 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the William Penn Carter School and received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Immediately after graduation he accepted a position as an instructor at the Moore School and helped teach a government-sponsored course in defense engineering. One of his students was John W. Mauchly, a physicist from nearby Ursinus College who later became Eckert's colleague and fellow instructor.

In 1942 John Mauchly submitted a proposal to the Moore School for the construction of a general-purpose electronic digital computer...