Father, Son & Co.
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Publishing was an unfamiliar world when I started this project. I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have had the help of our agent, Kathy Robbins. She is tactful, attentive, and as smart a businessperson as I’ve ever known. Linda Grey, our publisher, understood from the very beginning exactly what the book was meant to be, and has been a great source of encouragement. Our editor, Beverly Lewis, worked hard to give the text its final polish. A number of veteran journalists assisted us at various stages and in various ways: Louis Banks and John McDonald with editorial advice; Lorraine Carson, George McNeill, Vicki Sufian, Carolyn Tasker, and Linda Williams with research; and Katherine Bourbeau with photo research. We were also fortunate to have had the logistical help of Diane Chiquette, Elizabeth Corrigan, Kim Dramer, Alicia Hill, Jean Kidd, and Ellen Miller.
Two families supported the book. Peter Petre’s wife, Ann Banks, is a gifted writer who edited our earliest drafts and gave important advice all along the way. My own Olive, who has backed me loyally in everything I’ve done for the past forty-eight years, willingly put up with even this project. My sister, Helen Buckner, gave us wonderful reminiscences of Dad and of scrapes she saw me get into as a boy; and my eldest daughter, Jeannette Sanger, contributed funny, revealing stories about growing up in our household. Finally, I’d like to make a special acknowledgment to my grandson, Thomas William Watson, whom everyone knows as Willy. He has been a wonderful companion to me during voyages to the Arctic and Antarctic, and I hope he’ll find in these pages a few stories he hasn’t already heard during our long nights at sea.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
IBM did not always welcome efforts by journalists to probe the company or my family. Ironically, the best account of my father’s life is a book IBM refused to cooperate with—William Rodgers’s THINK: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM. The best layman’s account of computer-industry history in the years spanned by my career is Katharine Davis Fishman’s The Computer Establishment. Both books contain insights that helped us in writing this one. We also relied heavily on three works backed by the company: IBM’s Early Computers, a comprehensive and meticulously researched technical history; IBM and the U. S. Data Processing Industry: An Economic History, which is based on the case we made in our 1969 antitrust suit; and my father’s authorized biography, The Lengthening Shadow.
Banfield, Edward C. “An Act of Corporate Citizenship,” Programs to Employ the Disadvantaged, Peter B. Doeringer, ed. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Bashe, Charles J., et al. IBM’s Early Computers. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986.
Belden, Thomas and Marva. The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.
Brock, Gerald W. The U.S. Computer Industry: A Study of Market Power. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1975.
Brooks, Frederick P. Jr. The Mythical Man-Month. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975.
Fisher, Franklin M., et al. IBM and the U.S. Data Processing Industry: An Economic History. New York: Praeger, 1983.
Fishman, Katharine Davis. The Computer Establishment. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Levinson, Harry, and Stuart Rosenthal. CEO: Corporate Leadership in Action. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Malik, Rex. And Tomorrow … The World?: Inside IBM. London: Millington, 1975.
Rodgers, William. THINK: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM. New York: Stein and Day, 1969.
Thirty Years of Management Briefings: 1958 to 1988. Armonk, New York: IBM, 1988.
Watson, Thomas J. “As A Man Thinks”: The Man and His Philosophy of Life As Expressed in His Editorials. New York: IBM, 1954.
Watson, Thomas J. Men, Minutes, Money: A Collection of Excerpts from Talks and Messages Delivered and Written at Various Times. New York: IBM, 1934.
Watson, Thomas J. Jr. A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.
Watson, Thomas J. Jr. Addresses and Articles of Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Armonk, New York: IBM, n.d.
Finally, we want to thank, for prompt answers to our questions, the Boston Computer Museum, the Jimmy Carter Library, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, the Mystic Seaport Museum, and the National Security Archive.
About the Authors
Thomas J. Watson Jr. was chief executive officer of IBM from 1956 to 1971. He was then named chairman emeritus and served as a member of the company’s advisory board until his death.
Peter Petre is a member of the editorial board at Fortune magazine. He lives in New York.