Kathryn Strutynski

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Kathryn Strutynski
Born(1931-02-05)5 February 1931
Nephi, Utah, USA
Died9 April 2010(2010-04-09) (aged 79)
Calgary, Canada
Resting placeNephi, Utah, USA[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBrigham Young University,
Naval Postgraduate School
SpouseAlfred Waldemar Strutynski
ChildrenKaren Strutynski née Strutynski

Kathryn Betty Strutynski (née Latimer) (5 February 1931 – 9 April 2010) was a

Bechtel Corporation, she worked at Digital Research, where she contributed to the development of CP/M, the first mainstream operating system for microcomputers
.

Early life and education

Kathryn Betty Latimer was born on 5 February 1931[2] in Nephi, Utah, USA. Her father was Andrew Hans Latimer and her mother Henrietta Norton.[1][3]

Latimer obtained an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Brigham Young University in 1953,[4] and taught high school mathematics in Utah for two years.

Career

In the early 1950s, she moved to San Francisco, where she worked at Pan Am Airways doing research. Kathy eventually became responsible for all the charter bids at the Western Division of Pan Am. When Pan Am consolidated its offices in New York Latimer was the only woman to be offered moving expenses to relocate to New York, but she declined the offer.

After Pan Am, Kathryn Latimer worked at

McGraw-Hill[5] and the estimating department of Bechtel Corporation.[5] When the company decided to purchase a mainframe computer, Latimer was sent to take every class given at IBM. In 1952 and 1953, she built the company's first database retrieval system, with 10 engineers working under her charge, renting computer time since they did not have a mainframe computer at that time. The database was used for a period of ten years.[5]
In 1958, she married Alfred Waldemar Strutynski.

Kathryn Strutynski's husband moved to Monterey, California to work for the County of Monterey as an auditor. The couple lived in Carmel Village, where she worked at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) since 1967[4][6] and completed a master's degree program in computer programming at the same time. Strutynski was given system responsibility for the VM operating system at the NPS.[5] At the same time, Gary Kildall also taught at the NPS[4] and was interested in operating systems. They became friends,[7] studied and made unofficial changes to the IBM VM-360 and 370.[4][8][9]

Digital Research

Main article: Digital Research

Kathryn Strutynski left NPS

Concurrent PC DOS.[18]

Around 1985, Strutynski returned to work for NPS at the W. R. Church Computer Center,[19] where she raised the PC lab[19] and taught MS-DOS and WordPerfect courses[20] as Manager of Microcomputing Support[21] and Learning Resource Centers.[22]

In her later years she ran Strutynski Associates in Carmel.[23]

Personal life

Kathryn Latimer met Alfred Waldemar Strutynski in a German dance hall. They married in 1958 and moved to Carmel since her husband had started working for Monterey County as an auditor. She worked for the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and later at Digital Research.[24]

Death

Kathryn Strutynski died on 9 April 2010 at her daughter's home in Calgary while she was 79. Her husband died two days later.[25][24]

In popular culture

Harold Evans wrote about her in his book They Made America (2004).[26] For the reworked paperback issue (2006), Strutynski spent many hours working with Evans updating the chapter of his book related to the birth of CP/M.[5][12][27]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Kathryn Betty Latimer". ancestors.familysearch.org (Obituary). 2010. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-14. 5 February 1931–9 April 2010 (Age 79) Nephi, Juab, Utah, United States […] When Kathryn Betty Latimer was born on 5 February 1931, in Nephi, Juab, Utah, United States, her father [Andrew Hans Latimer, was 39] and her mother, Henriette Norton, was 35. She married Alfred Waldemar Strutynski in 1958. She lived in Nephi Election Precinct, Juab, Utah, United States in 1940 and Utah, United States in 2010. She died on 9 April 2010, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, at the age of 79, and was buried in Vine Bluff Cemetery, Nephi, Juab, Utah, United States. […]
  2. Digital Dialogue - Employee Newsletter of Digital Research Inc. Vol. 2, no. 1. Digital Research. January 1993. p. 2. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-15. Retrieved 2021-08-15. […] Feb. 5 Kathy Strutynski […] (4 pages)
  3. ^ "James Latimer Jr". ancestors.familysearch.org. 2021-10-29. Retrieved 2021-10-29. […] 9th Child: Andrew Hans Latimer […] Birth: 7 Oct 1891 […] Place: Nephi, Juab, Utah […] Married to: Henrietta Norton […] Married: 1 May 1918 […] Place: Manti Temple, Manti, Utah […] Died: 10 Oct 1962 […]
  4. ^
    Gary Arlen Kildall
    , Associate Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics (1972); B.S. Univ. of Washington, 1967; M.S., 1968; Ph.D., 1972. […] (224+4 pages)
  5. ^
    Apple computer of that time. Credit went to others, but their efforts did not actually work; Kathy got it finally to work. […] [1]
    (2 pages)
  6. ^
    hdl:10945/57186. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2021-08-17. p. 6: […] Kathryn Strutynski, who had been a member of our systems programming staff since 1967, resigned recently. Kathryn will be working for Digital Research in Pacific Grove on software for microprocessors. Digital Research was formed, and is run, by Gary Kildall
    , ex-Professor of Computer Science at the School. The Center will miss her enthusiasm and skills, and we wish her every success in the future. […] (1+6 pages)
  7. ^
    DRI
    many years later. […] (1+2+78 pages) (NB. Part 2 not released due to family privacy reasons.)
  8. ^ a b Strutynski, Kathryn (2006-02-12). "hiring". Retrieved 2021-08-16 – via Computer History Museum. I was good friends with Gary at the Naval Postgraduate School. We made unauthorized changed to the IBM VM-360 and 370 system code. IBM never let us see the code again. One day at the school, Gary came into my office and asked if I had seen him. That was a very strange question. I soon learned that he had been wandering around all day probably thinking about some new algorithm and he did not know where he had left his punched cards. At this time the cards were his only important possession. Gary didn't talk to me about working for him. He just came into my office, picked up my briefcase. This was a common occurrence. He walked me to my car and said: "I can afford you." We never discussed when or how much. (1 page) (NB. Discusses the informal way Gary Kildall hired Strutynski and her role in developing some of significant Digital Research Products.)
  9. ITCHP 446f95d245858. Lot X7847.2017. Archived
    from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-10. [3:31] (NB. Strutynski tells of her youth in Utah, attending BYU, coming to San Francisco to work for Pan American Airlines, and then Bechtel.)
  10. W. R. Church Computer Center
    furnished untiring assistance with technical problems and programming. […] Kathryn Strutynski, Code 0141 W. R. Church Computer Center Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California 93940 […] (191 pages)
  11. ^
    Thomas Alan Rolander
    , who is often considered to have been DRI's first employee, although John R. Pierce was.)
  12. ^
    Concurrent CP/M-86. While at DRI, Kathryn gave seminars on hardware implementation in Brussels, Wokingham, England, and Munich, Germany. One of Kathryn's biggest thrills in later life was meeting the author Sir Harold Evans while he was re-writing parts of his book, "They Made America," for the release of its paperback version. Kathryn spent many long hours working with Sir Harold Evans updating the chapter of his book relating to the birth of CP/M and her beloved Gary Kildall's contributions to the field of computing. […] [2]
  13. Z80
    coprocessor card for the Apple II with 64 or 192 KB of RAM. It came with CP/M Pro 3.0, CBASIC and other development tools.)
  14. ^
    ITCHP 4470ecbc538a0. Lot X3705.2007. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-16. Retrieved 2021-08-16. (4 pages) (NB. Written after Strutynski gave a talk in the Netherlands.)
  15. ^
    CP/M Plus
    . She has an MS in computer science from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. […] (7 pages)
  16. Digital Dialogue - Employee Newsletter of Digital Research Inc. Vol. 1, no. 5. Digital Research. December 1982. pp. 1, 7 [7]. Archived
    from the original on 2021-08-15. Retrieved 2021-08-15. p. 7: […] CP/M Plus Project Leader Kathy Strutynski discusses marketing tactics with Hal Elgie […] (8 pages)
  17. ^ DESPOOL Background Print Utility - Operator's Guide (PDF). Pacific Grove, California, USA: Digital Research. 1979. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-15. Retrieved 2021-08-15. (2+8+2 pages)
  18. CW Communications, Inc. p. 20. Archived
    from the original on 2021-08-15. Retrieved 2021-08-15. p. 20: […] Kathy Strutynski, product marketing manager for DRI's Concurrent [PC DOS] […]
  19. ^
    hdl:10945/45670. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-17. Retrieved 2021-08-17. […] Did you do more of the setting up, or was it more Kathy Strutynski? […] I don't think I can take any credit. I did some initial experimentation with local area net-working but didn't have time to actually complete a production system before I left. I think you can accurately credit Ms. Strutynski with the PC lab. She arrived after I left and probably spent a while cleaning up my mess. […] (1+6 pages)
  20. hdl:10945/52509. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-14. (1+8 pages)
  21. hdl:10945/52575. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved 2021-08-14. p. 13: […] Manager, Microcomputing Support […] Kathryn Strutynski […] Room In-111 Ext. 2696 […] (1+13 pages)
  22. hdl:10945/52600. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-13. Retrieved 2021-08-14. p. 9: […] Manager, Learning Resource Centers […] Kathryn Strutynski GL-375 kstrutynski […] 2696 […] (1+10 pages)
  23. ^ Rossini, Brian (2021). "Brian Rossini - Sr. Product Manager, Smart Glasses". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2021-08-15. Strutynski Associates Carmel, CA […] Personally mentored by Kathy Strutynski: Kathy wrote what was renamed DOS Operating System (without permission) while working at Digital Research, with Gary Kildall. Co-inventor of magnetic disc writing process, also with Gary. […] Kathy was a joy to work with, indoctrinating one lucky student every 3–4 years out of high school into tech via a paid part-time internship, then part time employment. […]
  24. ^ a b "Alfred Waldemar Strutynski". ancestors.familysearch.org (Obituary). 2010. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. 19 September 1919–11 April 2010 (Age 90) Czernowitz, Bukowina, Austria
  25. Monterey Herald (Obituary). 2010-06-19. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2021-08-14 – via Legacy.com
    .
  26. LCCN 2003065954. p. 414: […] Jacqui Morby agrees. "We could have won the first look and feel case and held up IBM." She recalls that the new board was not aware that during this period, while IBM and Gates kept very quiet, Microsoft's Steve Bal[l]mer was nevertheless continually on the telephone to DRI's project manager, Kathy Strutynski, asking for guidance on the internal engineering of the CP/M operating system. "That was pure thievery." […] (2+1+496+2 pages) (NB. A corrected revision
    was released as paperback in 2006.)
  27. ISBN 0-316-01385-4. (692 pages) (NB. This paperback is a corrected revision of the original 2004 hardback edition. There is a 2014 revision of this book, which, in a chapter "Vindication for Kildall" [3], also discussed the outcome of the 2005–2007 Tim Paterson v. Harold Evans law suit and the IEEE 2013 Diamond Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for Kildall
    .)

Further reading
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