John Haanstra

Born in San Francisco, California, Haanstra graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1949 with a degree in electrical engineering. In 1950 he went to work for IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York. During the Korean War he was recalled to serve in the Navy. Following his discharge he rejoined IBM in June 1952 in the then new San Jose Laboratory.{{cite book |last=Kean |first=David W. |title=IBM San Jose, A Quarter Century of Innovation |date=1977 |publisher=IBM |location=San Jose |page=103}}

Initially Haanstra was one of the engineers and then a leader in the development of the RAMAC 350 disk drive. He then became responsible for designing the 1956 IBM 305 RAMAC system which was the first commercial computer system using a hard disk drive.{{cite web|title=Mr. John W. Haanstra|url=http://www.ithistory.org/honor-roll/mr-john-w-haanstra|website=IT History Society|date=21 December 2015 |accessdate=July 26, 2016}}{{cite web|last1=Pugh1|first1=Emerson W.|title=Creating Magnetic Disk Storage at IBM|url=http://ethw.org/Creating_Magnetic_Disk_Storage_at_IBM|website=Engineering and Technology History Wiki|date=9 January 2015 |accessdate=July 26, 2016}}

In 1957 he was promoted to assistant general manager of General Products Division (GPD), and in 1961 he became president of the division. There he oversaw the deployment of the highly successful 1401 computer system. Also in 1961 IBM vice president T. Vincent Learson established the 12-person SPREAD task group, with Haanstra as chairman and Bob O. Evans as vice chairman. The result, a 26-page report, was published in December, 1961, and "became the basis for the System/360 series and its operating system."{{cite web|last1=IBM Corporation|title=System 360 From Computers to Computer Systems|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/system360/words/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403024423/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/system360/words/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 3, 2012|website=IBM at 100|date=7 March 2012 |accessdate=July 26, 2016}} Haanstra agreed that GPD would produce the low-end model of System/360 that became the Model 30. However, he was not fully on board with the "New Product Line" (NPL) as System/360 was known at the time. To compete with the newly announced 1401-compatible Honeywell 200 system, Haanstra had GPD secretly produce a plan for a much faster 1401S system, which he presented to IBM President Thomas Watson Jr. in January, 1964, along with a suggestion that he delay the introduction of the Model 30. Although Watson praised the plan, Haanstra was removed as president of GPD, and the 360 project continued as planned.{{cite web|last1=Evans|first1=Bob O.|title=The Genesis of the Mainframe|url=https://www.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/cs/Literature/History/boevans.pdf|accessdate=July 25, 2016}}

Despite his demotion (Evans calls it "IBM purgatory"), in 1965 Haanstra was appointed president of IBM's newly formed Systems Development Division (SDD), responsible for all IBM computer research and development. Later that year, however, delays in System/360 manufacturing caused Watson to remove Haanstra from SDD and assign him to a committee called the "four horsemen" along with John Gibson, Clarence E. Frizzell, and Henry E. Cooley. The committee was to coordinate all IBM manufacturing and laboratory locations and "decide how to meet System/360 manufacturing commitments."{{rp|p.172}} In 1966 Bob Evans lobbied and had Haanstra appointed vice president of the IBM Federal Systems Division (FSD) Federal Systems Center.

In August 1967 Haanstra left IBM and went to work for General Electric's computer division in Phoenix, Arizona as special assistant to the head of GE's Information Systems Division, and in 1968 he was appointed head of advanced planning{{cite web|title=BULL computers chronological history|url=http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/histoire/english/chronoa5.htm|accessdate=July 26, 2016}}

At General Electric Haanstra contributed to the design of Project Charlie, a line of medium sized machines intended to compete with System/360. He recommended the development of microcoded peripheral controllers rather than hard wired units. It is likely that it was on his recommendation that emitter-coupled logic (ECL) was chosen as the technology to be used for the new system.

In 1968 Haanstra assumed responsibility for the "GE655" project in Phoenix, later the GE6000 that became the Honeywell 6000 series.{{cite web|last1=Thelen|first1=Ed|title=Origin of the Level 64 the New Product Line of Honeywell in the 1970s|url=http://ed-thelen.org/GE-ComputerDept-LaterYears.html|website=General Electric Computer Department from the bottom up 1961 through 1965|accessdate=August 22, 2016|archive-date=April 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416193910/http://ed-thelen.org/GE-ComputerDept-LaterYears.html|url-status=dead}}

In 1969, flying his private plane back to Phoenix from a trip to Vermont, Haanstra, his wife June (Hill) Haanstra, and their son Glenn were killed when the plane crashed near Clines Corners, New Mexico on August 16, 1969, on the final leg between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Phoenix. Two other children were not traveling with the couple at the time.

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Category:1926 births

Category:1969 deaths

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:American electrical engineers

Category:IBM employees

Category:General Electric employees