ABC: John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry Determining who was first
in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC. Our in-depth
feature covers the story behind the Atanasoff-Berry Computer and
John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. John Atanasoff's mother was
Iva Lucena Purdy, a mathematics schoolteacher. His parents had
nine children (one of whom died): John, Ethelyn, Margaret,
Theodore, Avis, Raymond, Melva, Irving. After John Vincent's
birth, his father accepted an electrical engineering position is
Osteen, Florida, and subsequently, in Brewster, Florida. It was
here that John Atanasoff completed grade school and started
understanding the concepts of electricity. The Atanasoff home in
Brewster was the first house they lived in with electricity, and
John Atanasoff, as a 9-year-old boy found and corrected faulty
electric wiring in a back-porch light. Atanasoff's grade school
years were very normal. He was a good student and had a youthful
interest in sports, specially baseball. This interest in
baseball faded w