BY LEO L. BERANEK

JOHN PRESPER ECKERT, or as he preferred, J. “Pres” Eckert, was born April 9, 1919, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received the bachelor of science degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941. His 1943 master of science degree in electrical engineering was from the University’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Pres and his wife, Judith, had four children and made their home in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. He was known as a serious worker who wanted things done right. His family and his students at the university attest to his readiness to be helpful and his devotion to vigorous and healthy living. He died June 3, 1995, in Bryn Mawr at the age of seventy-six.

A brilliant student, Pres was named a part-time laboratory instructor in his second graduate year at the Moore School. His charge was to teach the principles of engineering to students from other fields with the goal of making them able to work effectively in the World War II effort. His class comprised more than thirty students, sixteen of whom had their Ph. D. s. It was through that course that he met John W. Mauchly, whose doctorate was in physics.

In 1942 and 1943, Eckert became involved in improving a version of Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer, invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After considerable success, Mauchly and he discussed how much further its performance could be improved by more precisely machined parts and