William F. Atchison
William F. Atchison was Director of the Computer Science Center at the
University of Maryland from 1966-1973, acting chair, Department of Computer
Science from 1973-1974, professor computer science 1966-1988, and professor
emeritus, 1988-1998. Prior to joining Maryland he held positions at Georgia
Institute of Technology, from 1955--1966 where he subsequently became
professor and chief of the Rich Electronic Computer Center 1957--1966.
Bill received his AB in mathematics and chemistry from Georgetown College in 1938, an MA in mathematics from the University of Kentucky in 1940, and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1943.
During WW II he was in the U.S. Navy, 1944-1946 as educational services officer on Guam. He and his staff taught college courses to GIs returning home from service.
Atchison started his career in computer science at the University of Illinois in 1951 where he programmed the Illiac computer. He became active in service to the scientific communities. He was member and chair for several years of the AFIPS Education Committee; AFIPS representative to the IFIP Education Committee, serving as chair Education Committee (TC3) and chair, Secondary Education Working Group (WG 3.1). He also served as Maryland's representative to EDUCOM and was elected chair of the Interuniversity Communication Council, 1972-1973.
Atchison's major contribution to computer science was in education and curriculum development. He was a world leading expert in this field. As chair of the ACM Curriculum on Computer Science, his committee developed the report, ``Curriculum 68,'' in 1968, and its predecessor, ``An undergraduate Program in Computer Science,'' in 1965. These reports were the first in he world to recommend comprehensive curricula for computer science. The reports were used as the basis for computer science programs in the United States, and throughout the world, and influenced computer curricula in other fields such as information science. Atchison was influential in the development of degree programs at Maryland. As part of the Computer Science Center, before the start of the Department of Computer Science, he was able to convince the Administration to start an M.S. degree in computer science in a non-academic unit, and to obtain faculty lines for the program. The program was approved in 1967 and started in 1968. This was followed by a PhD program which was approved in 1969. It was not until the Department of Computer Science was formed in 1973 that a B.S. in computer science was approved. Atchison had a major role in the approval of the degree.
Because of his pioneering work in computer science education, Atchison received numerous awards: The ACM Distinguished Service Award, 1973; the Chester Morrill Memorial Award, Chesapeake Division, Association for Systems Management, 1975; Special Award, IFIP WG 3.1; First ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education, 1981; the Distinguished Alumni Award, Georgetown College, 1982; Honorary Member, IFIP WG 3.1, 1992, and Founding Fellow, ACM, 1994.
