Glen Culler

John R. White

In December 1966 I was mid-way through my Senior year at UCSB, majoring in mathematics, lost (or at least unmotivated) in a senior-level Real Analysis course, and spending a lot of time wondering what was I going to do with a degree in mathematics. Almost every day I would be in North Hall (the site of lots of math classes), look through the window at what I later found out was a relatively new IBM System360/50, and think to myself "Computers. That sounds interesting. I wonder how you get into that?"

On one of those treks through North Hall I noticed Charles Irby, a good friend from many math and physics courses, working in the machine room. The next time I saw him, I asked if he was working with computers -- how did he get the job -- who can I talk to? Charles (actually he was called Chuck in those days) told me he had a job as a programmer working for Glen Culler on a big project to implement a mathematical time-sharing system on the University's computer. He told me they needed help and to talk to Glen.

A few days before Christmas I walked into Glen's RW-400 Lab and said "I want to learn about and work with computers." "Interesting" Glen responded. "Do you know anything about computers and programming?" "Nothing" I said. "Absolutely nothing." "Perfect" Glen replied. "You're just the kind of person we are looking for."

Glen gave me a copy of the System360/50 Principles of Operation manual to read over the Christmas Holiday (a far cry from today's Introduction to Computer Science textbooks), and my life hasn't been the same since.

I worked with the group in CRL that completed two versions of the UCSB (Culler-Fried) Time-Sharing System. It was an incredible experience. Everyone was bright, motivated, and had a real "can do" attitude. Glen was the mentor, the leader. As such he instilled in the group a sense of confidence (perhaps a little unwarranted at times) that we could do almost anything. And we did.

As Glen moved into speech research, I drifted into PhD work in programming languages and compilers. Twenty years later at Xerox PARC I was co-chairing a conference with Alan Perlis on the History of Personal Workstations for the ACM. In reality, it was a conference on the history of that small group of ARPA-funded research sites that in the late 60's were essentially defining the future of computing. We invited Glen to be one of the thirteen speakers. Nothing had changed. He was as inspiring then as the first day I met him.

Back to Glen Culler Honorary Lecture Home Page

Back to College of Engineering