Edmund Callis Berkeley

Born in 1909, Edmund Callis Berkeley became one of the most energetic popularizers of early computing. He worked with the pioneering computer community in the mid-20th century and is remembered for helping make new ideas about machines, logic, and automation understandable to a broad audience.

Berkeley wrote books about computing at a time when the field was still young, including Giant Brains, or Machines That Think, which introduced many readers to the possibilities of electronic computers. He was also closely involved with the professional world of computing and is noted as the founder and first member of the Association for Computing Machinery.

He later founded and edited Computers and People, an early computing periodical that kept readers informed about developments in the field. By the time of his death in 1988, Berkeley was widely recognized as a key public voice in the early history of computers.