Thomas J. Watson Jr.
American businessman and former CEO of IBMWikipedia
19
MENTIONS
10
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 19 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Thomas J. Watson Jr.".
Sep 27, 2026
Sean HaasHOST
At the time, Watson Sr. was head of IBM.
Sean HaasHOST
Watson Jr. oversaw the 603 project.
Sean HaasHOST
The older Watson didn't think it was such a good idea to go messing around with these new electrical things.
Sean HaasHOST
But the project survived and almost thrived.
14 MINS LATER
Sean HaasHOST
That same tactic worked out well during World War II.
Sean HaasHOST
This would serve to further ties between IBM and the US military, at least some parts of the military that wanted fast electronic computers.
Sean HaasHOST
At the same time, Watson Jr., then executive vice president of IBM, was trying to push the company towards more electronic and more digital devices.
Sean HaasHOST
He had been a major backer of the test assembly and tape processing machine projects.
Mack PaulGUEST
Their governor, Byrd, talked about massive resistance to desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And Tom Watson, Jr., head of IBM, after getting that recommendation, said, no, we're going to go to RTP.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he was very much a believer in desegregation.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he had been hearing these stories.
Mack PaulGUEST
Their governor, Byrd, you know, talked about massive resistance to desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And, um, Tom Watson Jr., head of IBM, after getting that recommendation, said, "No, we're gonna go to RTP," and he was very much a believer in, um, desegregation, and he had been hearing these stories.
Mack PaulGUEST
So it, you know, again, it was a, a very decisive factor for RTP in the early years.
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Mack PaulGUEST
Their governor, Byrd, talked about massive resistance to desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And Tom Watson, Jr., head of IBM, after getting that recommendation, said, no, we're going to go to RTP.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he was very much a believer in desegregation.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he had been hearing these stories.
5 MINS LATER
Mack PaulGUEST
And he just happens to be from North Carolina.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he goes, he wants to go to UNC and leave IBM and start the first computer science department at UNC.
Mack PaulGUEST
Tom Watson invites him to dinner up in Armonk, New York, and, you know, tries to convince him to stay one more year because they're like beta testing the System 3 system.
Mack PaulGUEST
They're running into problems.
Mack PaulGUEST
They, their governor, Byrd, you know, talked about massive resistance to desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And, um, Tom Watson Jr, head of IBM, after getting that recommendation said, "No, we're gonna go to RTP," and he was very much a believer in, um, desegregation, and he had been hearing these stories.
Mack PaulGUEST
So it, you know, again, it was a, a very decisive factor for RTP in the early years.
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Herman PoppleberryHOST
The CDC 6600, which Cray also designed, was the fastest computer in the world from 1964 to 1969.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
And Thomas Watson Jr. at IBM wrote a memo on the 28th of August 1963 saying...
Herman PoppleberryHOST
I fail to understand why we've lost our industry leadership position by letting someone else offer the world's most powerful computer.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
And Cray's reply? It seems like Mr.
Mack PaulGUEST
Their governor, Byrd, talked about massive resistance to desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And Tom Watson, Jr., head of IBM, after getting that recommendation, said, no, we're going to go to RTP.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he was very much a believer in desegregation.
Mack PaulGUEST
And he had been hearing these stories.
Mack PaulGUEST
They, their Governor Byrd, you know, talked about massive resistance to d- desegregating schools.
Mack PaulGUEST
And, um, Tom Watson Jr., head of IBM, after getting that recommendation said, "No, we're gonna go to RTP," and he was very much a believer in, um, desegregation, and he had been hearing these stories.
Mack PaulGUEST
So it, you know, again, it was a, a very decisive factor for RTP in the early years.
Caleb ZakarinHOST
Yeah, it seems like IBM was a huge boon to the park.
Haren BhaktaGUEST
1970s to 1984 or beyond 1984 was IBM.
Haren BhaktaGUEST
IBM was so dominant in 1984 that it was more than two and a half times larger than the next largest company in the world so this would be like nvidia today being 12 trillion dollars um it was incredibly dominant no no company has been as dominant since but in 1984 um the ceo or not ceo the the uh chairman which was which was thomas watson jr the the founder of the sun He's the one that took IBM public in the 50s, ran as CEO until the 70s and remained as chairman until 1984.
Haren BhaktaGUEST
So he retires in 1984.
Haren BhaktaGUEST
And fast forward just eight years after his retirement.
Mack PaulGUEST
And right after that, IBM came.
Mack PaulGUEST
And a big reason Tom Watson Jr. chose RTP, 'cause it was a late add to the list of places over Virginia, was the fact that Virginia, their governor said, "We're gonna do massive resistance to integration," and North Carolina did not do that, and that was kind of the decisive factor for him to come here.
Aarron WalterHOST
So there can be policy things put in place, land can be purchased and developed, but at some point, someone has to have a compelling idea that shows people, "We could do something cool here.
Aarron WalterHOST
We are doing something cool here." Is there a point in history where that happened, where there was something really innovative that got people thinking?