A sign that IBM's Future Systems project was in trouble was the frequency of reorganizations and the number of critical problems, each of which was supposed to be solved by an ad hoc committee called a task force. One member of our department, Bob Bacon, drew a comic book to illustrate the adventures of Task-Force Tim. For a serious report about some of the problems, see Memo 125, which was written around the same time as this comic book.
Earlier in 1974, one of the members of our department, Jack Gelb, arranged to get himself transferred to another IBM department in Palo Alto, California. That department was also working on aspects of FS, but Jack decided that if and when FS collapsed, he'd rather be in California. For Jack's departure, Bob drew the following portrait, which includes everybody except Jack.
The official department name was Advanced Systems Development Division (ASDD) Products Architecture, and the manager was Howard Krasnow, who reported to Carl Conti, who reported to the president of ASDD, Jack Bertram. The building, called the IBM Mohansic Laboratory, was located in Yorktown Heights, New York.
From left to right: Phil Benkard, Ken Blake, Bill D'Avanzo, Stan Spiegelman, Jim Griffin, Stan Pierce (back), Ralph Canizzaro (middle), Ron Brennan (foreground), John Sowa, Howard Krasnow, Don Rain, Sid Riskin, Bob Bacon, Denise Beurcet.
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