Erich Bloch, German-born American electrical engineer, Died at 91

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Erich Bloch was born on January 9, 1925, in Sulzburg and died on November 25, 2016.

He was a German-born American electrical engineer and administrator.

Erich served as director of National Science Foundation from 1984 to 1990.

He was the son of a Jewish businessman and housewife, lost his parents in the Holocaust, survived the war in a refugees camp in Switzerland and immigrated in 1948 to the USA.

Bloch studied electrical engineering at ETH Zurich and received his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

He joined IBM in 1952.

Bloch was engineering manager of lBM’s STRETCH supercomputer system and director of several research sites during his career.

During 1984, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Bloch joined the Council on Competitiveness as its first distinguished fellow in 1991.

The National Science Board honored him in 2002 with the Vannevar Bush Award.

During 2002, Bloch was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum “for engineering management of the IBM Stretch supercomputer, and of the Solid Logic Technology used in the IBM System/360, which revolutionized the computer industry.”

Bloch died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, in Washington, D.C.

Erich Bloch passed away at 91 years old.