Computer Industry Pioneer: Erwin Tomash (1921-2012)

Computer industry pioneer and visionary cofounder (with his wife Adelle Tomash) of the Charles Babbage Foundation (CBF) and the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), Erwin Tomash passed away on 10 December 2012. In the late 1940s, Tomash was an engineer at Engineering Research Associates (ERA), one of two firms that launched the US computer industry. He later founded and led Dataproducts Corporation, a Fortune 500 computer peripherals and core memory firm. Erwin and Adelle Tomash's insights and generosity in founding, supporting, and advising CBF and CBI have had a profound and continuing impact on the infrastructure for research and publication of scholarship on computer and software history.