Computing History

Published April 19, 2004

April 30 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late George R. Stibitz, former professor emeritus at Dartmouth Medical School and according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the father of modern computing. In 1940, as an engineer with Bell Labs, Stibitz demonstrated for the first time the process of remote computing by transmitting data from Dartmouth's campus in Hanover to New York City and back again via teletype equipment during a meeting of the American Mathematical Society. Stibitz joined Dartmouth in 1964 as a research associate in the Physiology Department at DMS. He became a professor in 1966 and worked primarily on physics, mathematics and computer applications and their connection to biophysical systems. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1986. A large plaque commemorating the 1940 computer demonstration hangs outside the doors of McNutt Hall.

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