April 5, 1911 – Born on this day is Cuthbert Hurd, a mathematician hired by IBM in 1949. At the time, Hurd was only the second IBM employee hired with a Ph.D. While he may not be widely-known, his contribution to IBM and the development of computers is invaluable. During the early 1950s IBM profited greatly from traditional punch card accounting. It was Hurd who quietly encouraged the upper management of IBM to enter the field of computing, as a cross-country sales trip revealed pent-up demand for scientific computers. It was a difficult move for the company, but was a rewarding one. Hurd was able to sell 10 out of the 18 computers marketed as the IBM 701, the first commercial scientific machines that could be rented at $18,000 a month.
Hurd soon became director of the IBM Electronic Data Processing Machines Division, and later became president of the Computer Usage Company, the first independent computer software company.
Cuthbert Hurd – Image taken from ethw.org