Mr. Paul Castrucci

Born in St. Johnsville, New York on the Mohawk River, his father had come to the United States through Ellis Island around 1910. Neither of his parents could read, but he made good grades in school. He knew at a young age that he wanted to study Physics at Union College in Schenectady, NY. He graduated from Union College in 1956 and interviewed at IBM. They were working on computers, so he began working in the research lab. After only three months; however, he went into the Air Force and was stationed outside of Detroit but then was transferred to a radar base in northern Canada. After two and a half years in the Air Force he returned to IBM in 1959 or ?60. He went back to research, but in a different area ? the components division in Yorktown. Then IBM formed a components division in Poughkeepsie, NY, and they asked him to be one of 15 or 20 people to start. As an engineer and manager at IBM, he led a revolution in integrated circuit memories between 1965 and 1990. The computer memories that he and his team invented, developed produced a major paradigm shift in computer storage that would change the industry and set the stage for current computer memory technology. He is an active alumnus of Union College, who in retirement continues as a consultant and Director for a number of technology initiatives.