April 21, 2009, four of the 1940s-50s engineering and technical staff of the IBM Thomas J. Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory (plus one spouse) visited its former site at 612 West 116th Street, now Casa Hispanica, and toured the building from bottom to top:

• Ann Lemke
• James U. (Jim) Lemke (Watson Lab 1948-1950)
• John H. (Jack) Palmer (Watson Lab 1949-1957)
• Daniel (Dan) Robbins (Watson Lab 1949-1953)
• Jean Mabrey Taylor (Watson Lab 1950-51)

All four – Jean, Jim, Jack, and Dan – were together at Watson Lab the last half of 1950. I believe most, if not all, of them worked for John Lentz on the IBM 610, the world's first "personal computer" as far as anyone knows.

Jack is co-author of IBM's Early Computers [4] (MIT Press 1986), along with Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, and Emerson W. Pugh; and of IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems (MIT Press 1991), with Pugh and Johnson.

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Also see: The Watson Laboratory Three-Week Course on Computing and Eric Hankam's Watson Lab Photo Gallery 1945-59.

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