Editing Wesley A. Clark

{{Short description|American physicist and computer engineer}}
{{about|the computer scientist|the American general|Wesley Clark}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image                   = Wesley A Clark 2009 Portrait.jpg
| image_size              = 200px
| caption                 = Wes Clark in 2009
|birth_name               = Wesley Allison Clark
| birth_date              = {{birth date |1927|4|10}}
| birth_place             = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.
| death_date              = {{death date and age |2016|2|22|1927|4|10}}
| death_place             = [[Brooklyn, New York City]], New York
| residence               =
| field                   = [[Computer engineering]]<br>[[Internet]]
| work_institution        = [[MIT Lincoln Laboratory]]<br>[[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]]<br>[http://clarkrockoff.com/ Clark, Rockoff and Associates]
| alma_mater              = [[UC Berkeley]]
| doctoral_advisor        =
| doctoral_students       =
| known_for               = [[TX-0]], [[TX-2]], [[LINC]]
| author_abbreviation_bot =
| author_abbreviation_zoo =
| prizes                  = [[Eckert–Mauchly Award]]<br>[[Computer Pioneer Award]]<br>[[National Academy of Engineering]] member
| footnotes               =
}}

'''Wesley Allison Clark''' (April 10, 1927 – February 22, 2016) was an American physicist who is credited for designing the first modern personal computer.<ref name=nytimes2016>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/business/wesley-a-clark-made-computing-personal-dies-at-88.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=technology&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Technology&pgtype=article |title=Wesley A. Clark, Made Computing Personal, Dies at 88 |last=Markoff |first=John |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=February 27, 2016 |access-date=2016-02-29}}</ref> He was also a [[computer designer]] and the main participant, along with [[Charles Molnar]], in the creation of the [[LINC]] computer, which was the first [[minicomputer]] and shares with a number of other computers (such as the [[PDP-1]]) the claim to be the inspiration for the [[personal computer]].

Clark was born in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], and grew up in Kinderhook, New York, and in northern California. His parents, Wesley Sr. and Eleanor Kittell, moved to California, and he attended the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he graduated with a degree in physics in 1947.<ref name=nytimes2016/> Clark began his career as a physicist at the [[Hanford Site]].
In 1981, Clark received the [[Eckert–Mauchly Award]] for his work on computer architecture. He was awarded an honorary degree by [[Washington University in St. Louis]] in 1984.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/archives/facts/honorary-degrees.html |title=Honorary Degrees granted at Washington University in St. Louis, 1859 – present |website=Library.wustl.edu |access-date=2016-02-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909013220/http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/archives/facts/honorary-degrees.html |archive-date=September 9, 2015 }}</ref> He was elected to the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 1999. Clark is a charter recipient of the [[IEEE Computer Society]] [[Computer Pioneer Award]] for "First Personal Computer".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/pioneer|title=Computer Pioneer Charter Recipients|website=Computer.org|access-date=2016-02-24|archive-date=2013-09-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906063313/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/pioneer|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==At Lincoln Laboratory==
Clark moved to the [[MIT Lincoln Laboratory]] in 1952 where he joined the [[Project Whirlwind]] staff. There he was involved in the development of the Memory Test Computer (MTC), a testbed for [[ferrite core memory]] that was to be used in Whirlwind. His sessions with the MTC, "lasting hours rather than minutes"<ref name="november">{{cite book |last=November |first=Joseph |title=Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States |chapter = The LINC Revolution: The Forgotten Biomedical Origins of Personal Computing |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1421404684}}</ref> helped form his views that computers were to be used as tools on demand for those who needed them. That view carried over into his designs for the [[TX-0]] and [[TX-2]] and the [[LINC]]. He expresses this view clearly here:

<blockquote>...both of the Cambridge machines, Whirlwind and MTC, had been completely committed to the air defense effort and were no longer available for general use. The only surviving computing system paradigm seen by M.I.T. students and faculty was that of a very large International Business Machine in a tightly sealed Computation Center: the computer not as tool, but as demigod. Although we were not happy about giving up the TX-0, it was clear that making this small part of Lincoln's advanced technology available to a larger M.I.T. community would be an important corrective step.<ref name="Buxton">{{cite journal |title=Interaction at Lincoln Laboratory in the 1960s: Looking Forward – Looking Back |last=Buxton |first=William |journal=Chi 2005 |publisher=ACM |pages=1162–1167}}</ref></blockquote>

Clark is

<blockquote>one of the fathers of the personal computer... he was the architect of both the [[TX-0]] and [[TX-2]] at Lincoln Labs. He believed that "a computer should be just another piece of lab equipment." At a time when most computers were huge remote machines operated in [[batch mode]], he advocated far more interactive access. He practiced what he preached, even though it often meant bucking current "wisdom" and authority (in a 1981 lecture, he mentioned that he had the distinction of being, "the only person to have been fired three times from MIT for insubordination".)<ref name="Buxton"/></blockquote>

Clark's design for the [[TX-2]] "integrated a number of man-machine interfaces that were just waiting for the right person to show up to use them in order to make a computer that was 'on-line'. When selecting a PhD thesis topic, an MIT student named [[Ivan Sutherland]] looked at the simple [[Cathode-ray tube|cathode ray tube]] and [[light pen]] on the TX-2's console and thought one should be able to draw on the computer. Thus was born [[Sketchpad]], and with it, interactive computer graphics."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://design.osu.edu/carlson/history/lesson2.html |title=Section 2: The emergence of computer graphics |website=Design.osu.edu |access-date=2016-02-24}}</ref>

==At Washington University==
[[File:Mary Allen Wilkes - LINC at Home - 1965.jpg|thumb|LINC home computer]]
In 1964, Clark moved to [[Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University]] in [[St. Louis]] where he and [[Charles Molnar]] worked on macromodules, which were the fundamental building blocks in the world of asynchronous computing. The goal of the macromodules was to provide a set of basic building blocks that would allow computer users to build and extend their computers without requiring any knowledge of electrical engineering.<ref name=Ornstein_book>{{Cite book
  | first = Severo | last = Ornstein
  | title = Computing in the Middle Ages: A View from the Trenches 1955–1983
  | publisher = 1st Books
  | year = 2002
  | location = Lexington, KY
  | isbn = 978-1-4033-1517-5 }}
</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' series on the history of the personal computer had this to say in an article on August 19, 2001, "How the Computer Became Personal":<ref>{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |title=How the Computer Became Personal |date=August 19, 2001 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/business/how-the-computer-became-personal.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2016-02-24}}</ref>

<blockquote>In the pantheon of personal computing, the LINC, in a sense, came first—more than a decade before [[Ed Roberts (computer engineer)|Ed Roberts]] made PC's affordable for ordinary people. Work started on the Linc, the brainchild of the M.I.T. physicist Wesley A. Clark, in May 1961, and the machine was used for the first time at the [[National Institute of Mental Health]] in [[Bethesda, Maryland|Bethesda, MD]], the next year to analyze a [[cat]]'s neural responses. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Each Linc had a tiny screen and keyboard and comprised four metal modules, which together were about as big as two television sets, set side by side and tilted back slightly. The machine, a 12-bit computer, included a one-half megahertz processor. Lincs sold for about $43,000—a bargain at the time—and were ultimately made commercially by Digital Equipment, the first minicomputer company. Fifty Lincs of the original design were built. </blockquote>

==Role in ARPANET==
Clark had a key insight in the planning for the [[ARPANET]] (the predecessor to the [[Internet]]). In April 1967, he suggested to [[Robert Taylor (computer scientist)|Bob Taylor]] and [[Lawrence Roberts (scientist)|Larry Roberts]] the idea of using separate small computers (later named [[Interface Message Processor]]s) as a way of forming a [[message switching]] network and reducing load on the local computers.<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Pelkey |first=James |title=4.7 Planning the ARPANET: 1967-1968 in Chapter 4 - Networking: Vision and Packet Switching 1959 - 1968 |url=https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/section/4.7/planning-the-arpanet-1967-1968/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223230647/https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/section/4.7/planning-the-arpanet-1967-1968/ |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |access-date=May 9, 2023 |work=The History of Computer Communications}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2015/01/02/a-very-short-history-of-the-internet-and-the-web-2/|title=A Very Short History Of The Internet And The Web|last=Press|first=Gil|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2020-02-07|quote=Roberts’ proposal that all host computers would connect to one another directly ... was not endorsed ... Wesley Clark ... suggested to Roberts that the network be managed by identical small computers, each attached to a host computer. Accepting the idea, Roberts named the small computers dedicated to network administration ‘Interface Message Processors’ (IMPs), which later evolved into today’s routers.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_imp.htm |title=ARPANET IMP, Interface Message Processor |website=Livinginternet.com |date=January 7, 2000 |access-date=2016-02-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B1_F20_CompuMtg.html|title=SRI Project 5890-1; Networking (Reports on Meetings).[1967]|website=web.stanford.edu|access-date=2020-02-15|quote=W. Clark's message switching proposal (appended to Taylor's letter of April 24, 1967 to Engelbart)were reviewed.|archive-date=2020-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202062940/https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/mousesite/EngelbartPapers/B1_F20_CompuMtg.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Lawrence|date=1967|title=Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communications|chapter=Multiple computer networks and intercomputer communication|chapter-url=https://people.mpi-sws.org/~gummadi/teaching/sp07/sys_seminar/arpanet.pdf|pages=3.1–3.6|doi=10.1145/800001.811680|s2cid=17409102|quote=Thus the set of IMP's, plus the telephone lines and data sets would constitute a message switching network}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Harford|first=Tim|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49842681|title=And 'Lo!' - How the internet was born|date=2019-10-16|work=BBC News|access-date=2020-02-19|language=en-GB|quote=Clark suggested installing a minicomputer at every site on this new network.}}</ref> The same idea had earlier been independently developed by [[Donald Davies]] for the [[NPL network]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Roberts|first1=Dr. Lawrence G.|title=The ARPANET & Computer Networks|url=http://www.packet.cc/files/arpanet-computernet.html|access-date=13 April 2016|date=May 1995|quote=Then in June 1966, Davies wrote a second internal paper, "Proposal for a Digital Communication Network" In which he coined the word packet,- a small sub part of the message the user wants to send, and also introduced the concept of an "Interface computer" to sit between the user equipment and the packet network.}}</ref> The concept of [[packet switching]] was introduced to the ARPANET later, after the [[Symposium on Operating Systems Principles]] in October 1967.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.computer.org/pioneers/davies.html|title=Computer Pioneers - Donald W. Davies|website=history.computer.org|access-date=2020-02-19|quote=The design of the ARPA network (ArpaNet) was entirely changed to adopt this technique.}}</ref>

==Post-Nixon China trip==
In 1972, shortly after [[1972 Nixon visit to China|President Nixon's trip to China]], Clark accompanied five other computer scientists to China for three weeks to "tour computer facilities and to discuss computer technology with Chinese experts in Shanghai and Beijing. Officially, the trip was seen by the Chinese in two lights: as a step in reestablishing the long-interrupted friendship between the two nations and as a step in opening channels for technical dialogue."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Computing in China: A Travel Report |journal = Science |volume =182 |date=October 12, 1973 |pages= 134–140 |doi=10.1126/science.182.4108.134 |pmid=17777884 | last1 = Cheatham | first1 = TE Jr | last2 = Clark | first2 = WA | last3 = Holt | first3 = AW | last4 = Ornstein | first4 = SM | last5 = Perlis | first5 = AJ | last6 = Simon | first6 = HA|issue = 4108 |bibcode = 1973Sci...182..134C }}</ref> The trip was organized by his colleague [[Severo Ornstein]] from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Washington University. The other members of the group were: Thomas E. Cheatham, Anatol Holt, [[Alan J. Perlis]] and [[Herbert A. Simon]].

[[File:Wesley A Clark 2002.jpg|thumb|Clark in 2002]]

==Death==
He was 88 when he died on February 22, 2016, at his home in [[Brooklyn]] due to severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.<ref name=nytimes2016/>

==See also==
*[[List of pioneers in computer science]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005900/http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/dictionary/detail.asp?guid=&searchtype=1&DicID=19576&RefType=Encyclopedia Wesley Clark article] in ''Smart Computing Encyclopedia''
*[http://purl.umn.edu/107217 Oral history interview with Wesley Clark]. [[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota. Clark describes his research at [[Lincoln Laboratory]] and interaction with the [[Information Processing Techniques Office]] (IPTO) of the [[Advanced Research Projects Agency]] (ARPA). Topics include various custom computers built at MIT, including the [[LINC]] computer; timesharing and network research; artificial intelligence research; ARPA contracting; interaction with IPTO directors; the work of [[Lawrence Roberts (scientist)|Larry Roberts]] at IPTO.
*[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/lincolnLaboratory/51G-0012_Functional_Description_of_the_L1_Computer_Mar60.pdf Functional Description of the L1 Computer, March 1960] at bitsavers.org
*[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/lincolnLaboratory/6M-3938_The_Logical_Structure_of_Digital_Computers_Oct55.pdf The Logical Structure of Digital Computers, October 1955] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716185739/http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/lincolnLaboratory/6M-3938_The_Logical_Structure_of_Digital_Computers_Oct55.pdf |date=2012-07-16 }} at bitsavers.org
*[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/whirlwind/M-series/6M-3144_The_Multi-Sequence_Program_Concept_Nov54.pdf Multi-Sequence Program Concept, November, 1954] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716185801/http://bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/whirlwind/M-series/6M-3144_The_Multi-Sequence_Program_Concept_Nov54.pdf |date=2012-07-16 }} at bitsavers.org

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Wesley A.}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:American engineers]]
[[Category:Washington University in St. Louis physicists]]
[[Category:Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]
[[Category:Engineers from Connecticut]]
[[Category:MIT Lincoln Laboratory people]]
[[Category:Deaths from atherosclerosis]]