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On a cold winter’s night in 1937, John V. Atanasoff, clearly frustrated by a problem he’d been working on for months, decided to go for a long drive to consolidate his ideas. When he returned home, a theory was slowly but surely taking shape in his mind. He had systematically laid out the foundation for the first electronic digital computer. Another year went by before Atanasoff was ready to put his ideas into practice.

Enter graduate student Clifford Berry with his practical expertise in mechanical construction and electronics. He came highly recommended to Atanasoff through a colleague, Harry Anderson, who called Berry a “brilliant student” ideally suited for the computer-machine project. Impressed with Berry’s credentials, Atanasoff eagerly took on the enthusiastic 22-year-old for a project that would eventually catapult both student and professor into the annals of computer lore.

Berry’s involvement in the creation of the world’s first electronic digital computer was pivotal. He brought with him the instinctive problem-solving skills and vision that were essential for a venture of this magnitude. Berry was creative, amazingly adept at computer concepts, and able to manage complex problems with little outside assistance. Atanasoff couldn’t have asked for a more perceptive and skillful partner.

The son of an electric and appliance store owner and amateur electronic enthusiast, Berry grew up in Gladbrook, Iowa. At the age of 11, with his father’s help, he built his first ham radio. Besides having a natural curiosity and inclination towards electrical devices, Berry excelled academically with single-minded aspirations to study electrical engineering.

Berry received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Iowa State in 1939 and had just joined the graduate program when Atanasoff asked him to work on the computer project. The prototype of the Atanasoff Berry Computer was completed in December of that same year followed by the full-scale version, exhibited a year later.

Berry went on to complete his doctorate in physics from Iowa State in 1948, working in the area of mass spectrometry. He joined Consolidated Engineering Corporation in Pasadena, California, as a chief physicist, and then was a director of its analytical and control division until 1963 when he died suddenly.

While modern digital computers found their beginnings in Atanasoff’s ideas, co-inventor Berry helped move these concepts into the domain of practical application. Atanasoff’s meticulous configurations bore spectacular results in the hands of a brilliant graduate student, whose exceptional talent served to blaze a trail in computer history.