James H. Griesmer *58

James Griesmer, a retired IBM research scientist, died Dec. 20, 2011. He was 82.

Griesmer graduated from Notre Dame in 1951, then served in the Navy into 1954. He completed his Ph.D. in math from Princeton in 1958, after starting at IBM in 1957.

In 1960, he devised the Griesmer bound, a limit for detection and correction of transmitted information. In 1961, Griesmer began working at IBM’s new Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and became head of its 40-person Research Computing Center. He wrote the Lisp system for IBM’s System/360 computers in 1965; it later was applied to Scratchpad, a system for understanding algebra. During a 1970-1971 IBM sabbatical, he taught in the electrical engineering and computer science department at UC, Berkeley.

From 1976 to 1981, he was the education manager for IBM Research, after which he returned to the math department and worked on artificial intelligence. After 35 years, he retired from IBM. Over his final 20 years, he lived with peripheral neuropathy, and for more than a decade led a monthly self-help luncheon group of fellow sufferers.

Griesmer is survived by Kathleen, his wife of 27 years; four children, including Stephen ’79, from his first marriage to Margaret; and 10 grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.