Thomas Vincent Learson (September 26, 1912 – November 4, 1996) was IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

's chairman and chief executive officer from June 1971 through January 1973. He was succeeded by Frank Cary. Both the previous chairman Thomas Watson, Jr. and senior project manager Fred Brooks

Fred Brooks

Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. is a software engineer and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month...

 regarded Learson as the driving force behind the System/360

System/360

The IBM System/360 was a mainframe computer system family first announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and sold between 1964 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific...

 project, which was huge and risky but whose success ensured IBM's dominance of the mainframe

Mainframe computer

Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...

 computer market.

He was born in Roslindale, Boston, Massachusetts

Roslindale, Boston, Massachusetts

Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Mattapan.It is served by an MBTA Commuter Rail line, several MBTA bus lines and the MBTA Orange Line in nearby Jamaica Plain...

, son of Richard J. Learson and Katharine E. (Goode) Learson. He majored in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, graduating in 1935.

From 1975 to 1977 he was Ambassador at Large for Law of the Sea Matters and Special Representative of the President for the Law of the Sea

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...

 Conference, and Chief of Delegation.

He is buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery

Gate of Heaven Cemetery

The Gate of Heaven Cemetery, approximately 25 miles north of New York City, was established in 1917 at 10 West Stevens Ave. in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, United States, as a Roman Catholic burial site...

, in Hawthorne, New York

Hawthorne, New York

Hawthorne is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York. The population was 4,586 at the 2010 census.-History:...

.

External links

• IBM biography of Learson
• "Politicians in Miscellaneous Occupations in Massachusetts", at the Political Graveyard.