Eric, the associate editor in chief of Computing Reviews since 1982, has been involved in all aspects of technical literature since he sold his first article for $25 to Hugo Gernsbach’s Radio Craft in 1940, just after graduating from Lehigh University with B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering. He started reviewing for Computing Reviews as soon as John Carr founded it in 1960. After being the one-man proceedings committee for three ACM National Meetings (1958, 1959, and 1964), he was editor in chief of Computing Reviews from 1968 to 1970, and, in 1970, was appointed chairman of the ACM Editorial Board. He then became the first chairman of the Publication Board, serving until 1973. His two best and longest lasting accomplishments in that time are evidenced first by the ACM Copyright Notice still found on the title page of all ACM periodicals, giving free reprinting permission for personal and classroom use. His second accomplishment is memorialized on the title page of Computing Reviews, where a seldom used, but effective rebuttal procedure is outlined. In addition to his reviews, he contributed writings to the Communications of the ACM, most notably in a popular series of ‘Self Assessment Procedures’ in the 1975 to 1993 period.

Outside ACM, while a full-time employee of the Sun Oil Company, Eric wrote or edited seven computing textbooks, all of which are now out of print; was an advisory editor for several years for McGraw-Hill’s Control Engineering; served as associate editor for the five-year life of Abacus, a Springer-Verlag computing quarterly; and was on the editorial board of all four editions of Anthony Ralston’s The Encyclopedia of Computer Science, for which he always wrote the Literature of Computing article. He joined the editorial board of what is now the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing in 1980, was biographies editor for 16 years, and is now a contributing editor.

In 1978, Eric was given the ACM Distinguished Service Award, and as a consequence, in 1993, was in the first batch of ACM Fellows.

Eric, who retired from Sun Oil in 1982, and his wife of 63 years, Helen, now live in Kailua, Hawaii, which is well connected by wire to the mainland bases of the ACM, the IEEE, and Lehigh University, to all of which he sends comment, counsel, advice, criticism, and praise.