Seymour Cray was born in 1925 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where he toyed with electronics as a hobby before serving tours of duty in World War Two.  In 1950, Cray received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. A year later he received his Masters degree in Applied Mathematics.  His first job was at Engineering Research Associates helping build one of the first computing facilities in terms of digital circuits. Later he joined with Bill Norris and started another company called Control Data Corporation. Seymour’s first computer with CDC was the 1604 using transistors, new at this time.  These computers allowed scientists to solve partial differential equations to arrive at precise answers using an iterative process.  Cray went on to develop several other successful “Supercomputers” including the Cray 1 and Cray 2.  However the market was moving away from large scientific computers and to smaller personal devices, a trend which led Cray to close down his own computer firm, Cray computers, in 1995.  Cray dies a year later in an unfortunate fatal car accident.

*posted September 26-30, 2005