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John Atanasoff was born on October 4th, 1903 in Hamilton, New York.
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Atanasoff graduated high school with a diploma at the age of 15.
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In May of 1925, Atanasoff graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with a 4.0 GPA.
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In June of 1926, Atanasoff graduated from Iowa State College with his master's degree in Mathematics.
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In May of 1930, Atanasoff graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.
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Atanasoff was hired as an assistant professor at the Iowa State College. He assisted various mathematics and physics courses and was eventually promoted to associate professor of both mathematics and phyiscs.
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In 1936, Atanasoff built the "Laplaciometer" with Glen Murphy, at atomic physicist at Iowa State College. The Laplaciometer was a small analog calculator.
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In March of 1939, Atanasoff received a grant of $650 from Iowa State College to being the construction of the first electronic digital computer.
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In 1941, Atanasoff and Berry finished the first electronic digital computer, named the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).
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In 1942, Atanasoff left Iowa StateCollege to accept a defense-related position at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Berry also accepted a defense-related position in California. Both left the ABC behind at Iowa State College, and it was never patented.
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Atanasoff worked at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory from 1942-1949. He was promoted to Chief of the Acoustics Division and was involved in various major projects at the time. These include developing a computer for the US Navy, and involvement in the first atomic test in the Pacific.
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In 1949, Atanasoff divorced his wife Lura after drifting apart when Atanasoff accepted his position in Washington, D.C. The same year, JVA married Alice Crosby.
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In 1958, JVA established The Ordnance Engineering Corporation. This corporation was a research and engineering company based out of Rockville, Maryland.
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In 1961, JVA retired.
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On June 15th, 1995, Atanasoff died of a stroke at his home in Maryland.
