Al Hoagland

Albert S. Hoagland
Born(1926-09-13)September 13, 1926
Berkeley, California
DiedOctober 1, 2022(2022-10-01) (aged 96)
Portland, Oregon
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Occupation(s)engineer, educator
Employer(s)IBM, Santa Clara University
SpouseJeannine Maryse Claude Simart (m. 1950-2010)
Awards
  • IEEE Fellow, 1966
  • President, IEEE Computer Society, 1972-73
  • President AFIPS, 1974-80
  • IEEE Computer Society Meritorious Service Certificate, 1990

Albert Smiley Hoagland ('Al Hoagland') (September 13, 1926 – October 1, 2022) had a long career on the development of hard disk drives (HDD) starting with the IBM RAMAC.[1][2] From 1956 to 1984, he was with IBM in San Jose, California, and then, from 1984 to 2005, he was the director of the Institute for Information Storage Technology at Santa Clara University. He wrote the first book on Digital Magnetic Recording.[3] Hoagland played a central role in the preservation and restoration of the IBM RAMAC now displayed at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.[4] He died in Portland, Oregon, on 1 October 2022.[5]

  1. ^ "E. Growchowski, P. Goglia, "Hard Disk Drives: The Giants of the Storage Industry", page 6, Flash Memory Summit 2017, Santa Clara, California" (PDF).
  2. ^ Fisher, Sharon (September 13, 2006). "From Elvis' hips to spinning disk: 50 years of innovation". Computerworld.
  3. ^ A. S. Hoagland, "Digital Magnetic Recording", Wiley, New York, 1963
  4. ^ "Albert Hoagland: RAMAC Innovation and Legacy - CHM Revolution". www.computerhistory.org.
  5. ^ "Albert S. Hoagland's Obituary (1926 - 2022) Mercury News". Legacy.com.