Henry Francis Sherwood

A German-born computer pioneer who later took American citizenship, Sherwood was born in Berlin as Henry Weizenbaum. One of his brothers was the computer scientist and science critic Joseph Weizenbaum (1923–2008).

Henry Weizenbaum's parents were the Hofkürschnermeister Yechiel Weizenbaum and his second wife Henrietta. The father had a son from his first marriage, Leo Weizenbaum. In January 1923, his younger brother Joseph Weizenbaum was born. The wealthy family lived on the Charlotte Street near the Gendarmenmarkt.

First, Heinz Weizenbaum attended Luisenstädtischer secondary school, but when students were no longer allowed to attend public school on the basis of Jewish law, he moved to a Jewish school. In 1935 he celebrated his bar mitzvah in the synagogue at the Pheasant Street.

Because of the growing pressures on Jewish people in Germany, the family decided to emigrate to the United States. Relatives living in Detroit provided the necessary guarantees, so that the Weizenbaum family was able to board the ocean liner Bremen in Bremerhaven in January 1936 and leave Germany. The family settled in Detroit, where his father was active in the fur trade. Heinz Weizenbaum quickly learned English and joined the ROTC.

After graduating from high school, he defied his father's wishes to enter the fur trade and worked temporarily in a clothing store. The Catholic personnel manager of the shop made him aware of the Capuchin monk Father Solanus Casey, with whom he soon formed a friendship. Sherwood decided to convert and was baptized by Casey in 1940.

In 1942, Henry Weizenbaum volunteered for the army. Because of his ROTC training and his German origins, he was expected to receive officer's training and to be sent to Europe. However, he was assigned to the 33rd Infantry Division, which was stationed in the Pacific. The legal situation at that time required that a soldier possess American citizenship for a foreign assignment, so Henry Weizenbaum was naturalized on 4 June 1943, shortly before his unit shipped to Hawaii, on a fast track.

During the naturalization, the judge noted that a new citizen has the right to choose a new name. Weizenbaum chose the name Henry Francis Sherwood — Francis after one of his idols, St. Francis, and the surname after the forest from the stories of Robin Hood. During the war, Sherwood was involved in operations in New Guinea, Morotai, the Philippines, and most recently in the occupation of Japan.

From 1966 to 1977 he served as head of the European Diebold Research Program in Germany. He then founded his company Sherwood & Associates, based in Bad Homburg, which tested the security of data centers and IT installations.

Sherwood died at the age of 83 from an infection after initially recovering from bypass surgery. He had been married twice and had nine daughters and one son.