The ERMA Project

Introduction | Development Begins | The ERMA Computer | The Infallible Reading of Account Numbers and Final Hurdles | The Team

The Team

Most project participants shared the feeling that the effort was historic.

In almost every respect, the ERMA project was a team effort, in part because so many different and critical skills were needed. Tom Morrin had the overall project responsibility and interfaced with Clark Beise from Bank of America. The technical leadership of ERMA fell to Jerre Noe, Assistant Director of Engineering. His technical counterpart at the Bank was Charles Conroy. Project supervision at SRI also included Ken Eldredge, Byron Bennett and Oliver Whitby. Their collective job was to make the numerous components of the system "play together." Most project participants shared the feeling that the effort was historic, although no one could foresee the exact shape or pace of computer applications and computer research.

The technology was raw and in flux. Design decisions had to be taken with great uncertainty about the future of new hardware devices, and no tools for logic design or programming were available. Members of the team experimented with new devices and developed their own design techniques, and yet preserved commercial security throughout the project. All these factors made ERMA an exciting experience for SRI's engineers and fueled the effort needed for its success. Finally, Al Zipf must be recognized as the person who helped MICR, Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, become the standard ABA (American Banking Association) font and who oversaw the transfer of the SRI prototype into production at GE. He went on to become Bank of America's chief technical officer and a moving force in the automation of banking.

SRI's ERMA Team (1950s) The SRI ERMA project team was formed in 1950, and changed its team members in the following eight years depending on project requirements. Members of the team included: Milton B. Adams* Roy C. Amara George A. Barnard III Byron J. Bennett F.C. Bequaert John A. Blickensderfer* John A. Boysen C. Bruce Clark Frank W. Clelland, Jr. Bonnar "Bart" Cox Thomas J. Drewek Kenneth R. Eldredge* Bernard Elspas Howard Feidler* Dennis M. Finnigan Rolfe A. Folsomuu Alfred W. Fuller* Kenneth W. Gardiner Jack Goldberg Samuel E. Graf* William B. Guthoerl* Keith W. Henderson Tatsu Hori* Alfred E. Kaehler Fred J. Kamphoefner William H. Kautz Robert E. Leo Mendole D. Marsh* Mitchell J. Matovich, Jr. Richard W. Mellville* Stephen W. Miller Philip E. Merritt Maurice E. Mills* Thomas H. Morrin* Don Nielson Jerre D. Noe* Alonzo W. Noon* Bernard J. O'Connor* Ronald I. Presnell Robert M. Rowe Carroll M. Steele Paul H. Wendt* Oliver W. Whitby Benjamin A. Wolfe* Howard M. Zeidler* *Deceased

The SRI ERMA Project Team received the SRI International Gibson Achievement Award on March 21, 2001. Members of the team are pictured above with SRI President and CEO, Dr. Curt Carlson (far left, back row), Bank of America Senior Vice President (retired) Duncan Knowles, (second from left, back row), and Randy Welch, Bank of America (far right, back row).

| Gibson Achievement Award | Press Release |