Jerry Merryman RIP

Jerry Merryman, co-inventor of the first handheld electronic calculator at Texas Instruments, died February 27 (link). I had not heard of him. I recently read Walter Isaacson's The Innovators. It included a half page about the invention of said calculator. It referred to Patrick Haggerty and Jack Philby, but did not mention Merryman. So I sought to learn a little more about him.

This led me to a two-part article in ElectronicDesign about Merryman and the invention of said calculator. Part 1 download page. Part 2 download page. Registration is free. "How the Computer Got Into Your Pocket" is another story about the early years of the handheld calculator, with more details about Merryman's role.