Oral History of James Sutherland

Video Description

Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2023-05-18 in Mountain View, CA © Computer History Museum Jim Sutherland is an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. Sutherland gew up on a farm near Windsor, Missouri where he learned many practical skills. He grew up in the era of rural electrification, when federal subsidies provided for bringing electricity to the more remote regions of the United States, including his own house, which he wired for electricity himself. Sutherland enrolled in the electrical engineering program at the University of Missouri under a Westinghouse National scholarship. He enrolled in the campus ROTC program at the same time, which would later give him experience in the U.S Air Force, including a posting with his new bride in Madrid, Morocco, and Marietta, Georgia. He returned to Westinghouse, where he had begun five years earlier, to work on a new process control computer, the PRODAC IV. From components of this computer, which was not marketed, Sutherland built his own computer – which he called the ECHO IV -- inside his home, to control objects around the house but also to see how his young family would react to growing up with a computer at home. Sutherland concludes by describing some of the applications of the new home computer as well as the public reaction to the ECHO IV – one of the very first home computers. * Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792860 Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection. Acquisition number: 2023.0087 Collection number: 102792861