The Pursuit of Technical Visions
...Recollections of Glen CullerLarry Green
Larry Green
In the Ozark Mountains in 1905, John Green announced, "the Greens will no longer hunt 'ner farm, we're goin' into machinery." With this vision he built steam powered saw mills, grain mills and well drills. In 1934, Alvin Green established Green Motor Co., a Chrysler agency and machine tool shop. In this "laboratory" I learned mechanics, electrics, welding, and how to reduce a mechanical vision to reality.
The computer was discovered as I entered engineering school at the University of Missouri. The machine was a Burroughs Datatron 205, with 4000 vacuum tubes, drum storage, and Flexowriter I/O. I took a programming course and signed on as maintenance technician, totally consumed by this marvelous machine. It never occurred to me to "hook up" anything to the machine, or try any procedure that wasn't in the user manual...this would all come later. The Datatron was manufactured in Pasadena, inspiring me to move to California and take any job "working on computers." My father advised to finish school and wait for a job offer.
In July of 1965, I accepted a job offer from the UCSB Psychology Department as development engineer. The mission was to develop PDP-8 systems to control experiments and collect data for behavioral research. By 1967, the volume of data and complexity of analysis launched a pursuit for more powerful computing. A solution was proposed by Glen Culler and crew, to pipe the data to the new IBM 360/50 in North Hall for analysis, manipulate the data and display results on the Culler-Fried On Line System (OLS).
A rapid prototyping electronics shop was established in 1968, providing circuit design, printed circuit board fabrication, wire wrapping, and OLS installation services for the UCSB Campus. In the Fall of 1969, we fabricated the first IBM 360/75 to Interface Message Processor (IMP) interface with Roland Bryan's design, using DEC R Series logic modules. Our work load increased at the Computer Center, and I became involved with the visionaries that resided there, led by the Master Visionary, Glen Culler...and quitting time was never at 5 o'clock.
I was determined to strike roots, and in 1970 I persuaded Chuck Loepkey to establish the Maintenance and Electronics Support Group (MESG). From this base of operations, I became deeply involved with the reduction of many visions to prototype and practice...ARPAnet being only one example. It was common knowledge that "Glen can have enough ideas before breakfast to keep us all busy for years"....and so it was. MESG supported many projects until 1977, including:
We all centered on Glen's style of explaining complexities in simple terms and unforgettable observations:
Glen Culler's boundless enthusiasm and facination with machinery influenced all who had contact with him. Glen set me and countless others on career paths that are still followed today. My accomplishments are his too, because lessons learned from this Mentor are holding up well, even in these times of accelerating change in our information society.
The past was prologue. Since leaving UCSB in 1977, my pursuit of technical visions has been conducted in commercial enterprises, with roots in the many Culler Projects:
And now...I hold deep gratitude to John and Alvin Green for my machinery roots, and to the University of Missouri for my first computer, but it was Glen Culler at UCSB that showed me how to pursue technical visions that change the World.......THANK YOU GLEN!
| Full ahead, Larry Green |
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