Thomas watson sr. biography

Born February 17, 1874, Campbell, N. Y; died 1956; the towering figure whose lengthening shadow was IBM, which he reluctantly allowed to be dragged from punched cards to computing,- creator of IBM's motto "Think."

Education: Addison Academy, New York; School of Commerce, Elmira, NY

Professional Experience: salesman, pianos and sewing machines, Painted Post, NY, 1892-1896; salesman to general sales manager, National Cash Register (NCR) Corp., Dayton, Ohio, 1896--1914; general manager to chief executive officer, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp., 1914-1924; chief executive officer to president, IBM Corp., 1924-1956.

Thomas J. Watson, Sr., is one of those figures in the history of computing whose contributions are by no means technological but without whom the technologists would not have been able to proceed. After his somewhat controversial stint as general manager with the National Cash Register Corp., and the subsequent growth of IBM out of th