Walter F. Bauer

Walter F. Bauer was a mathematician, digital computing pioneer, and one of the first entrepreneurs to build a large independent software company. In 1962 he founded Informatics General Corporation, which grew into one of the world’s largest software firms of its era. Under his leadership as chairman and chief executive officer, Informatics developed systems for government and industry, ran computer service bureaus, and created packaged software products at a time when software was widely viewed as an add-on to hardware.

Informatics became particularly known for its Mark IV file-management and report-generation system for IBM mainframes, which became one of the best-selling corporate software products of the 1960s and 1970s. Bauer’s insistence that software could be a standalone business laid important groundwork for the modern software industry, well before “software company” was a common phrase.

After Informatics was acquired in the mid-1980s, Bauer served as chairman and CEO of Delphi Information Systems and held board or advisory roles at a number of technology firms. He was also active in professional and civic organizations, including service as chairman of the Charles Babbage Foundation (a precursor to the IT History Society) and leadership roles in regional technology executive networks.

Bauer’s career illustrates the transition from bespoke programming to packaged software and utility computing services. His entrepreneurial vision and management of Informatics helped demonstrate that software could sustain large, independent enterprises and global markets in its own right.