PDP-8
James Rothman ’67
When it became apparent that, as a fourth former, I had educated myself well into college math, the ethereal Mr. Ranhoff took it upon himself to tutor me in advanced multivariable calculus, and when he found that (frankly) I was tutoring him, he eventually concluded that I needed to go to college directly after fifth form.
You may remember the PDP-8 computer he secured for us housed in the basement of the dining room building. It became my lifeline in fifth form as I learned machine language and how to code. I was obsessed. He arranged for me to work over the summer at Digital Equipment Corp, which made the PDP, and I had the amazing experience of writing the software for the first GPS system (for the US Navy).
The following summer I wrote an original algorithm for fast Fourier transforms that became my most cited paper for more than a decade. I owe a lot to Per. He was a generous and selfless man.
