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Willis Ware, early computer pioneer, dead at 93

Willis Ware, a former Rand Corp. engineer who helped build early computers in the 1940s and '50 and predicted the importance of PCs long before they became ubiquitous, has died. He was 93.

Ware, an electrical engineer, was on the team at Princeton University that built the IAS machine, one of the world's first electronic computers, in the late 1940s. He joined Rand in 1952 to help build the Johnniac, another early computer that was based on the IAS.

Rand spokesman Jeffrey Hiday said that Ware passed away on Friday, Nov. 22. He is survived by two daughters, Deborah and Alison, son David, and their spouses, Edwin Pinson, Thomas Manoli, and Astrid Erling and granddaughters Arielle and Victoria Manoli.